


Altea High

by Lxie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Don't hate me Pls, Fire Powers!Keith, Frenemies to friends to lovers, Hunk is a metalbender, I have made up my mind, Ice Powers!Lance, Language, M/M, No Angst, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pidge talks to plants, SkyHigh AU, Slow Burn, Superpowers, also, but it might surprise you :3c, depends on how I feel, extraneous use of italics, it's going to take ages, klance, klance is still endgame!, non-binary Pidge, ok maybe a little bit, slowest burn ever, someone gets to be cupid, the lance/nyma won't last forever guys!, there will be angst, very oblivious and frustrating angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2018-11-03 13:37:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10968339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lxie/pseuds/Lxie
Summary: Go back to school they said. It'll be fun they said. Yeah, sure. It's tons of fun scaling lava walls, accidentally setting things on fire, and being babysat by the school's flirt. Keith can handle that. But falling for the snow-brained flirt and finding out your villainous mother isn't as evil as you thought she was? That's...not as fun.When Lance signed up (*cough* bribed *cough*) to show the new firebug around the school he thought it would be a piece of cake. He did not anticipate the sour attitude, spontaneous explosions, intimate moments in elevators...or the fact that so many students are losing their superpowers? What the hell is h a p p e n i n g??





	1. Briberies and Promises

**Author's Note:**

> So, hi. This is my first fic for Voltron and my first fic in like...3+ years? I just felt a sudden need to write this inspired by the Sky High AU from [ming-chan](http://ming-chan.tumblr.com/tagged/skyhigh-au) on tumblr!
> 
> I really hope you enjoy!

“Do you know why I called you in here, Lance?” Principle Allura asked, her British accent making everything just that much more proper. She folded her hands neatly on the mahogany desk.

“I don’t suppose it’s because you finally gave into my charms and decided to hold a romantic lunch date for me in your office is it?” Lance flashed a winning smile at the beautiful woman in front of him. A deadpan stare was his response. He quickly brought his hand down from his pose and sat on it as if it needed to be restrained—both hands, just in case. “No, ma’am.”

After a beat or two of silence to make sure that he was paying attention Allura resumed the meeting. “From what I see here you have been doing quite a few things: helping move the deadly sharks, adjusting the ice terrain, assisting Luxia with the prevention of mind control, helping preserve the food and several other things. That seems quite a lot yet you’ve been holding your grades well.”

Lance felt his face heat up and tried to prevent the goofy smile he felt coming from showing, from the principle’s amused smirk he wasn’t that successful. _Okay dude, she’s just talking about your grades, nothing to be blushing about, turn it around._ “Weeellll,” he extracted his hands from underneath him, ready to turn on the smoulder, but instead of framing his face he simply let them cross. “It’s all in a day’s work. Not just anyone can do what I can do—“

“I think you need to cut a majority of your activities out of your schedule, Lance.”

“Wait. Wuh? But! I can’t! All of those go to the work-study!” He flung his arms out, almost as if he was going to flap away from the conversation. “If I don’t do as much as I do then I can’t cover the tuition and this is the only place I—“

Allura held her hands up in a calming manner, halting the rambling. “I understand. I established the work-study. I have a deal for you and it’s nothing but a win-win.” She leveled him with a teal gaze promising everything he wanted but the glint made him just a _tad_ nervous. “Soon we will have a new student that is in our best interests to keep enrolled. He is extremely powerful but lacks control. At the very least he needs to stay to learn to control his powers. If you help this student throughout high school or until he learns to control his powers you will only have to pay a third of the tuition. You don’t have to strain yourself to do all of those activities and have the opportunity to focus more on your studies. Win-win.”

Lance bit his lip and started to idly move his hands, small movements, jerking up and down, up and down, akin to an old fashioned scale. It seemed like a great opportunity. Financially he’d be set, but he actually did enjoy all the activities he does. But on the other hand he can bring his grades up or put more energy into flirting with Nyma. He did have to babysit some guy though. Yet, the dude could be really nice or not as bad as they’re making it seem so he doesn’t necessarily have to be around him all the time. But…

“What exactly do you want me to do to help him?”

“Weeell,” she drew out, “You will be attending all of the same classes and will be partners if there’s a group project. Help him outside of class; befriend him; help him with his control. The only time you don’t have to be with him is Wednesdays during free period when he’s helping Coach Rush with the lava walls.”

There’s still one thing…

“Why me?”

She quirked a brow at him. “Don’t pretend to be humble now. I’m sure you know that you have the best control over your powers in this school. You’ve never been one for subtly.”

He inclined his head at the truth but that false show of being humble did not disguise the smug grin. “Granted, I do have the best control here. But that still doesn’t answer the question. Why me? There’s plenty of people who have good control here, sure, none of them have my incredibly good looks but we’ve gotta compromise sometimes.”

Allura tried to remember to not roll her eyes at a student. “This particular student has heat and fire powers. He can set himself on fire, project his powers in the form of flames or extreme heat waves, and he has invulnerability against fire. I think that with your control over the various forms of ice you would be able to subdue any mishaps that may happen.”

“You want me to babysit a firebug so he doesn’t set the school on fire?” _A powerful firebug from what it sounds like._

“It’s not _babysitting_. You are a representative of the school and will protect your fellow students in case of any _accidents_ ,” she gritted out.

“Well, what makes this guy soooo important?!”

“Because—!” She took a deep breath and let it out in a gusty exhale. She unclenched her fists before continuing. “It doesn’t matter. Listen, Lance, I think you’re a great student and I think you can help him be more comfortable here, but if you don’t think you can then it’s fine, we won’t force you. Now, please, give me an answer before I lose any more of my sanity.”

Lance would laugh but he likes living. Despite knowing the Kensington family for years it’s always, _always_ entertaining to see princess perfect Allura like she is _this close_ to strangling him. _Screw it._ He chuckled a bit. “Count me in. Anything for you, Princess.”

An acrylic nail stabbed in his direction. “Watch yourself, young man. I still speak with your mother.”

“Not Mamá!”

* * *

 

“Why the hell would I go back to the school that kicked me out?”

“You weren’t kicked out of school, you were relocated. Besides, that was middle school this is high school. New school, better technology, better ways of learning to control your powers, and a _new start._ ” Shiro leaned forward eyebrows raised to really hit home with the emphasis.

Keith heaved a sigh and adjusted his beanie. “I highly doubt that it would make much of a difference. And besides,” he turned a stormy glare his cousin’s way. “Isn’t it a conflict of interest for the school counselor to pull strings to get his flaming black sheep of a cousin into the prestigious private school for supers?”

Shiro shrugs his broad-ass shoulders. “Not if the school counselor genuinely thinks his flaming black sheep of a cousin would benefit from the school and be a benefit to the school.”

There was a long awkward second of staring before Keith finally broke the silence with a terse; “you signed me up for something didn’t you.”

“I just suggested that society would benefit for having a young superpower such as yourself as an asset with your powers rather than you becoming a very hotheaded civilian.”

Keith sighed. That makes some sense, but he really didn’t want to go to some snooty school with prejudiced rich kids who have it in their head that they’re going to be the next Voltron or some shit. Or who have it out for kids of supervillians. The only thing is that Keith can see the point in going is to learn to control his fire powers. Shiro had a point on Altea having better technology than the Garrison and the only way to lead a semi-normal life without anything to do with being a hero or a villain is to learn how to control his powers.

He let his head loll over the back of the chair, spying the partially melted handle of the fridge from when he forgot his gloves that morning. At least it was perfectly formed to his hand.

Still staring at the evidence of his lack of control he said, his voice soft, “Okay.”

A small proud smile made its way onto Shiro’s face, nodding, he clapped his hand onto Keith’s shoulder. Ignoring the young boy’s slight grimace and attempt to lean away.

“I’m proud of you bud.” He started to gather his coat from the back of his chair. “Come Monday the bus’ll pick you up at six forty-eight, don’t be late or you’ll have to figure a different way to get up five miles in the air. Your partner should meet you at seven, and during free period you need to meet Rush to help with the lava walls.”

“Wait, partner? Lava walls? Shiro?” Keith got halfway up from his chair while Shiro was already making his escape through the front door. “I thought you said you didn’t sign me up for anything! And what’s this about a partner? Shiro!”

“I’ll see you on Monday, Keith!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so short first chapter, but I have the main points plotted out (at least in my Mind!). If you guys don't mind to tell me if the characterization is off or if my tenses keep changing that would be great 'cuz I have SUCH an issue with tenses.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


	2. Meetings and Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No socks or squids were harmed in the making of this chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for the support! Thank you so much for the kudos and comments ^^ I really appreciate the feedback!
> 
> This is their first interaction and I'm just saying that Lance totally says swear-but-not-swear-words because he's around kids so much and knows firsthand of impressionable ears.

Fingerless gloves. Check. Beanie. Check. Two undershirts and a T-shirt. Check. Hoodie. Check. Jacket. Check. Leggings and pants. Check. Keith looked at himself in the mirror to see if there was anything but his face and fingertips showing. Nope. Good. He tugged his beanie lower on his forehead, his fingertips briefly singeing the hat.

He looked down at his hands, wiggling them. They didn’t look any different than anyone else’s hands, pale, chewed cuticles maybe, and short fingers but they didn’t _look_ any different. Look is the operative word here. He knew exactly how much destruction his hands could do. Pretty much anything he’s ever touched bare handed can attest to that.

He closed his eyes and focused. And focused. Aaand focused. Nothing. His fingers still didn’t cool. His sigh punched out of him. _Patience yields focus,_ his mind whispered. That inner voice is starting to sound a lot like a really annoying cousin of his.

“Patience yields focus,” he muttered.

Closing his eyes once more he focused on moving the heat from his fingers to his core. Gradually, eventually the temperature in his hands lowered to something slightly lower than a fever.

“Yes!” He smiled as he clenched his fists. He reveled in his accomplishment— until he noticed the steam. “Ah! Shit!”

He set his socks on fire.

Again.

He ripped off the pair of seared socks and grabbed a new pair from the Target value pack before he left charred marks on the wooden floor of his room. He hopped into his really fricken expensive fireman boots he got online. Expensive but _so_ worth it.

He huffed out a breath and twisted his neck back and forth, the satisfying cracks loosening him up. Checking the clock he had about five minutes before the bus was supposed to come. Trying to cool down his hands took a lot longer than he thought. Running down the stairs he almost made it out of house until a hand reached out and grabbed his hood. The threads popped as he was dragged into the kitchen kitty-corner to the front door.

“If you think I’m going to let you go on your first day of school without breakfast you have another thing comin’, young man.”

Keith twisted away from her grip, stepping away at a safe distance. “Scarlet, if you haven’t noticed I’m going to be late for the bus and I don’t want to learn how to fly to get to school.”

He’s proud to say he barely flinched when she reached for him. The tawny hand wavered and retreated, golden eyes crinkling ever-so-slightly before shoving two packages at him, careful to avoid skin. “There. Lunch and breakfast. Nothing gourmet or anything but it’s better than nothing.” She physically turns him by his quintupled covered shoulders and gives him a light shove towards the door. “I gotta get to work but if anything goes wrong—and I mean _anything_ —call me.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Uh, yeah. No problem. I’ll call if I burn down the school.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Ha. Ha. It’s almost six forty-eight, just go before you miss it.”

“Thanks, Scar,” he said before darting out the door.

The bus rolled up exactly at six forty-eight. With barely a wave to the bus driver he sat at the first empty seat he could see. He opened the paper bag labeled BREAKFAST only to find a package of pop-tarts. He shook his head, why would she bother to put in a bag is beyond him. She could have just, oh, who knows, _handed_ him the pop-tarts.

He took a bite out of dry cardboard and artificial strawberry. Scarlet meant well and she was willing to foster him despite the warning labels stamped on him from previous foster homes, but he just wished she would stop being so… _touchy-feely._ It’s like she doesn’t understand that if she touched him he could burn her.

It’s not like he’s ungrateful or doesn’t get what she’s trying to do, she’s done so much and it has certainly been the longest someone’s kept him. It’ll be seven months in a couple of weeks. But it’s generally _safer_ for her to just take care from a distance. She might have had other kids with volatile powers before him but he knows that whatever power level they had he far surpassed it.

He put the warped wrapper back into the paper bag before crumpling it. He kinda wants to look at the other kids around him but it’s best if they just left him alone. Eye contact just encourages people to _talk_ to him.

A whirring and screech of metal brought his attention to his surroundings. He makes a brief and subtle glance around to find that the mechanical shifting fazed no one else. Slowly, the blue and silver bus transformed into a sort of ship, lifting off the ground towards a castle in the sky.

Altea. The most prestigious private school for supers ever. Full of snotty kids and snootier super parents who think that just because someone has supervillains for parents they’re automatically evil too. Of course, it doesn’t really matter where he is. Private school or public school there’s always that slight fear in peoples’ eyes—teachers, students, parents—wondering when he’s going to snap and set everything ablaze.

So being at Altea wouldn’t be any different than anywhere else except, hopefully, he can get a portable nullifier or something.

The bus gently lowered onto the platform. Keith raced to be one of the first off the bus to avoid the inevitable shoving. The white castle itself was huge, at least several stories high and four football fields long with large windows at each spire. The castle was seated at the center of a large patch of land that reached half a mile from around the perimeter of the school. The land, from what he could see, was covered with bright green grass and patches of pink flowers, sparing the sidewalks and a few trees. Other the fact it’s a giant flying piece of land and a fucking castle it would have looked like any other school.

He checked his watch, 7:01AM blinked back at him. He looked around him. Nothing but other students rushing by getting to class, some were relaxing, idly playing with their powers. He could see some kids manipulating light to hit themselves more fully with the sun’s rays, said rays glinting off their sunglasses. Another group were going through various stages of shapshifting. This one young-looking kid was just typing intently on their laptop. Another one had a floating book in front of their face.

He looked around again. Shiro said someone was going to be waiting for him to show him around. If the guy wasn’t going to be on time then he might as well go. He’s sure he can find his way to the Shiro’s office by himself.

He started walking. He really shouldn’t have expect—

A cold breeze shot by him, nearly making him fall over.

“Shitake mushrooms, dude! Sorry!” The breeze was actually a person. When he steadied himself he almost slipped on a slick patch of ice. The really thin but surprisingly smooth ice, where you make one wrong step and you’re on your ass.

Two hands came out of nowhere and settled onto his covered arms. He jerked so violently he actually did end up on the ground. The hands were on either side of his hips and he was staring into deep navy blue eyes.

He must have been running late from the shower, as his short brown hair looked a little damp. The curled ends framed an aquiline nose and oval face that ended in a sharp point. Those navy eyes were wide and a pink mouth was moving. There was something about this guy that was so… familiar? A light brown hand reached towards him and he scrambled as far away as he could from that searching hand.

He stood and brushed his hands off on his pants. The almost-stranger’s face pinched a bit before smoothing out into something more neutral. He put down his hand and pushed himself up.

“Hey, sorry there, man. I didn’t see ya. I was going kinda fast.” He offered his hand again.

Keith just nodded and crossed his arms. “Don’t worry about it.”

The other teen slowly lowered his arm. “Yeah… uh, actually, could you be Keith?”

“…Yes? I’m guessing you’re supposed to show me around. You’re a little late.”

“Yeah, man. Sorry. I had to finish something up this morning. The name’s Lance.” He looked like he was going to offer his hand again but thought better of it. Instead he pointed his thumb over his shoulder. “I’ll -uh- show you to the counselor’s.”

“Fine.”

That pinched look again. “Fine,” he bit off.

He strode off without looking back to check if he was following. Flat-out ignoring the fact he was supposed to show Keith around. Shiro has this guy being his guide? Yeah, great choice. The guy’s late and he doesn’t even show him around like he’s supposed to. Not even five minutes and Keith’s already pissed someone off. God, what is he even doing here?

His guide stops abruptly in the middle of the large opening room bustling with other students. Keith had to be careful to avoid touching him or anyone else.

“Yeah, as you can see this is, like, a big social area. There are five hallways, four are lockers, one leads to the training room. Second floor are pretty much all classes and different training rooms. Detention center is the bowls of the castle, lunchroom also on the second floor. Pretty much it, mullet.”

Keith’s hand flew to the locks of hair peeking out of his hat. “I don’t have a mullet?”

“Really, dude? You have a mullet.” He made a strange high-pitched sound and held his hand to his head like a phone. “Oh, what’s that? You want to speak to Keith? Here, dude, it’s the eighties saying they want their hairstyle back.”

God, did he want to slap the hand that was waaay too close to his face.

 

* * *

 

 

Of all the days to be experimented on.

He _told_ them that the squid did nothing. Now, because he had to fight a live squid off his head he was late to meet with the guy _and_ he has some gross squid jelly messing up with the delicate balance of product in his hair. And it seemed like the guy was a total _jerk-off_. Cheese and rice he apologized didn’t he? Sure he almost-kinda-sorta ran him over but he said sorry! He even offered to help him up but the guy’s nose was so high in the air to even bother letting him help him up.

Just because the dude is “ _special”_ and _”powerful”_ and has _”fire powers”_ he’s better than him?

_Screw that._

Just because he has to show the guy around doesn’t mean he has to be around him all the time. He does he really have to show him anything?

In the corner of his eye he spotted a thin tail whip between students’ legs before diving into a hidey-hole. He suppressed a shiver. Okay, well Allura obviously doesn’t trust him enough to do his job. How rude.

After the quick run-down of the castle without of all the awesome background and Lance-approved commentary (because this walking laundry pile does _not_ deserve that entertainment masterpiece) he’s staring into glaring gray eyes while shoving his “phone” into the mullet’s face.

The guy was unreadable. If it wasn’t for the eyes Lance would have no idea if he even got to the guy. Going for his hair was a cheap shot but right then he felt like being immature. It’s a free country; he has _rights._

He rolled his tongue again. “ _Brrrring,_ _brrrrring_ , gonna pick that up Keith?” He shook his hand in Keith’s face. The mullet-head closed his bizarre-o (actually really super pretty) eyes and seemed to go into a meditative trance. If he wasn’t clenching his fists he might have looked somewhat peaceful.

He seemed to actually be _pouting_. Yup. Right there, a little crinkle in his nose and his bottom lip jutting out ever so slightly. Now how does a guy so bitter have a face so—ooooOHOHOLY SHIT!

Schist! Not shi—ah! Just, just, schist! Schistschistschist _schist,_ he’s _that dude_.

Okay. It’s fine. It looked like he didn’t even remember him. It’s all cool. Cool like ice. Like his powers. Ice powers. Yeah. He’s got this.

He dropped his hand and, turning, marched up one of the staircases towards Shiro’s office. He didn’t look back to see if Keith was following lest his internal freak-out still showed on his face.

_Ay Dios._ He didn’t think he would ever see Keith again. After disappearing in the middle of the year after the accident he figured that he moved or something. Well, it looks like he’s back.

He cleared his throat. “Well, here we are. We have the same schedule so, see you in class I guess.”

“Aren’t you supposed to show me where it is?”

“I dunno, can you read signs?” He pointed at the nearest classroom. “Room A-130, biogenetics. Our class is B-220, chem. I’m sure the great _Keith Kogane_ can read a few signs.”

“Fine! Bye!” Lance noted that some parts of the other boy were smoking but Keith either didn’t notice or care.

Oh, so Lance was pissing off the firebug? Great! Pyro here has been pissing him off since the beginning of time!

“I would say nice meeting you but it hasn’t!” He shouted at Keith as he was walking backward in the wrong direction of his class.

Keith with his arms crossed shouted back at him, torso leaning forward as if he couldn’t keep some of his aggression back. “Well, same!”

They stared at each other both postures defensive. “Well?” Keith snapped. “Aren’t you going to class?”

“Aren’t you going into the counselor’s office?”

“You’re the one leaving first!”

“Yeah! Well…our class is in the other direction.” Lance mumbled the last part so the mullet-head would ignore his flub. No such luck.

He didn’t react as he thought he did though. He didn’t make fun or gloat instead the kid seemed to shrink into his clothing. Which were smoking even more now, the guy’s going to have to stay away from the fire alarms.

“What. You’re too scared to walk past me?” If anything his voice held more venom than before. Along with a certain challenge and something else Lance couldn’t quite decipher yet.

“Afraid of walking past _you?_ Please.” Just to prove himself he strode past him and even bumped his shoulder against his. Taking in the look of utter shock on his face it’s obvious that no one’s challenged him since he dropped out. He smirked.

“As if.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter might not come for a little while, work has me working pretty much everyday for two weeks.
> 
> What do you guys think so far?
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. Arseholes and Articles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is a Fall and Lance freaks out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A [Hoshindo](http://www.swordsofkorea.com/sword28.htm) is a Korean dagger and Keith's mother. The first day of school is getting longer than I thought it would be >.>
> 
> I hid some foreshadowing in here, can you find them? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
> 
> Again, thank you guys so much for reading and the comments and kudos, it's very encouraging!

Keith slouched in the surprisingly comfy chair in Shiro’s office. He knew Shiro was talking to him. The intense look on his face and the moving mouth were indicators but, honestly, he can’t tell you what the flying fuck he was saying. Something about fitting in or making friends he’s sure, but he just can’t focus on the current topic right now. What he’s focusing on is how that _guy_ just casually… checked him? Like he wasn’t afraid of getting seriously injured? He knew his clothes were smoking, it’s not like this guy couldn’t have seen _that_. That was essentially a goddamn warning sign. _Do Not Touch._

In nature many creatures had bright vivid colors to warn off predators from eating them or coming closer.

Nearly setting himself on fire is his goddamn warning to others.

_Normally,_ people aren’t stupid enough to get close enough to get themselves burned but apparently there’s _one._

He…honestly, just can’t…fathom…? The guy was obviously scared of him, at least near the end when he was being an asshole. Why else wouldn’t he just simply walk past him to get to class? But then why did he shoulder-bump him out of the way? Is his stupidity and ego bigger than his self-preservation? Is he just stupid?

Is he stupid?

…

Keith concludes that he's just stupid. But that stupidity is so damn _familiar._  He doesn't know why but this special brand of stupid and ego-tripping reminds him of someone he knew before. Some scrawny kid in middle school that didn't know when to quit while he was ahead. He had some semi-fond memories of this boy and several indifferent ones and just one where it was  _so bad._

He wonders if this guy could possibly be his brother. 

“…eith. Keith!”

Keith’s eyes crossed as Shiro snapped his fingers in front of his face. “Wha?”

The older man sighed. “You didn’t hear a word I said didn’t you.” It was more of a statement than a question.

“No, you said something about making friends and… stuff.”

“Keith.”

He threw himself back into the chair; arms limp at his sides. “Fine. I have no idea what you just said.”

“What’s got you so distracted?”

“Nothing,” he mumbled, he eyed the magazine on the table advertising something about the new product from Empire Industries. “Everything’s just fine.”

“Is it about—“ Keith swiped the magazine, releasing a wave of flowery sample perfume. He paged through idly, though nothing really kept his attention for long. _Temper Gummies for Kids!_ _New Formula!_  The artificial cherry actually doesn't taste too bad from what he remembers.  _Which Season are You and Your Powers?_ He's apparently a Fall. _Are YOU the Quantum Commander’s Type?!_  No. No he's not. The Commander is too anal for him.  _Power Enhancement: Three Short Steps._  Psh. He has no issues in that area.  He could feel his cousin’s stare before he continued. “…About what happened at the Garrison?”

He sighed and threw the gossip rag back onto the table. “No, Shiro. It’s not about the Garrison.”

“Are you sure? Because you have a lot better control over your powers than you did back then. It might feel like you don’t but you do.”

“Yes, Shiro, I’m fine.”

“You’ll make a lot of good friends here too. Lifelong friends.”

“Oh my God, Shiro! Stop being such a mother hen! What if I don’t want any friends?”

His cousin just looked at him in that really annoying way of his, like he _knows_ something or…something. “Trust me. Even if you say you don’t want any they’ll come find you. And you will _never_ get rid of them.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Hunk!” Lance shouted as he burst through the door of the classroom. Spotting the Samoan he sprinted over grabbing his arm.

“Oh my God, Lance! Why are you so cold?”

Lance ignored his friend’s complaint and continued to chant his name. “Hunk! Hunk! You will _not_ believe who I have to babysit for the rest of the year!”

His friend simply maneuvered his arm out of the icemaker’s grasp and looked back at his worksheet where he was solving the chemical equation. “Uh, like a kid? Is it Melody? Cora?”

“What? No, nonono not actual babysitting, but yeah, gotta watch the girls this weekend. But that’s not it. I’m talking about the thing Allura’s making me do.”

“Hey, nerds, what’s Allura making you do?” Pidge slid in across from them moving aside the Bunsen burner and beakers to make way for their laptop. They curled their little legs under them on the stool to get a little height and immediately started tap-tap-tapping away on their computer, their fluffy blondish chestnut hair the only visible part of their head.

“She has me being a representative of the school or something and helping one of my fellow peers assimilate to a public school setting or whatnot. Basically I have to babysit the new guy.”

“That doesn’t sound like a good idea.”

Lance threw his hands in the air. “I know right?!”

“I mean that she thinks that you would be a good representative without messing up.” They grinned over their computer the light from the window glaring from their glasses. Lance told them to spring for the Anti-Reflective lenses.

“Oh, real funny coming from you. May I remind you of who somehow kept setting the sprinklers off with the bells?”

“Hey, I got it fixed by the end of the day!”

“Not before it soaked _ev-er-y-one,_ but I got out of my math test that day so thanks for that. “

They rolled their eyes at him. “Of course. Next time I’m charging.”

“So who’s the guy you’re babysitting?” Hunk interrupted whatever Lance was going to quip back before the conversation derailed even further.

Lance slapped his hands on the table like he needs its support for the bomb he was going to drop on them. “Oh. My. God. Oh my God. I completely forgot, but it’s just, oh my—“

“Yes, oh my God and baby Jesus, get to the point Lance.”

Lance just glared at Pidge before sticking his finger in their face until they go cross-eyed before booping their nose. “Shush, you.”

He looked at each one of them in the eye for several seconds before saying, in a hushed conspirial tone, “It’s Keith.”

A moment of silence.

Pidge and Hunk looked at each other before looking at Lance again. “Uh, we don’t know who that is, buddy.”

Lance threw his hands up again. “How can you not remember, Hunk?! I can understand Pidge because I don’t think they were in the Garrison yet, but my bro? Remember? Keith? Keith. Keiiiith.”

“Bro, just because you keep saying his name does not mean I’m going to remember.”

“Keith Kogane? He was in our class? For, like, years? Know-it-all, show-off, arsehole?”

Pidge quirked an eyebrow, “One, isn’t that a swearword? Just because you say it like a British person doesn’t mean it’s not a swearword, Lance. Two, this Keith guy sounds familiar but give me a sec.” She ducked down behind her technical shield.

The Cuban planted his elbow on the table, his pointer raised toward the sky. “One, it totally isn’t a swearword because it doesn’t count if we’re in America. Two, _mi mamá_ is not here. Three, okay, do your diddly bop. Four, c’mon Hunk! You have to remember him, he was a total jerk!”

Hunk gently led Lance’s four fingers out of his face and onto the counter. “Okay, Lance, the guy sounds a little familiar now that I have more than his first name. Wasn’t he, like, really quiet though?”

“It didn’t stop him from showing off every damn—“

“Language.”

“Shut up, Pidge, damn isn’t a swear and you know it.” Lance didn’t miss a beat as he continued. “ –Second. Ooh, look a flame here, a fire there, I can set myself on fire I’m soooo cooooooll.” Lance mocked, voice high in a poor impersonation of Keith’s own voice. “ _And_ he just _had_ to get perfect grades and be the absolute golden boy to every teacher. Iverson _loved_ him.”

“Ugh, Iverson was a jerk.” Pidge’s nose wrinkled in disgust.

“I know right, he was all ne, ne, ne, and blah, blah, blah, and there's no eating in the classroom. Ugh.” Hunk griped.

“But anyways,” As much as he loved bashing Iverson Lance needed to get them back on track. “Keith was a jerk to me. I mean, anyone who was in Iverson’s pocket had to be a jerk, come on.”

“Yeah, but buddy, didn’t you make everything with him into a weird competition? I think a lot of those fire shows were because you pissed him off dude.”

“Well, I might have found when he dropped out.” Pidge turned their computer around to face the both of them. “Here’s an article from 2013 when you guys were in 7th grade it was actually deleted from the original source but I found it. _‘Local Boy Devastates School with Fire Abilities.’_ ” They hummed a bit when they skimmed the news article. “Wow. He really did some damage didn’t he. No wonder he dropped out, I’m surprised no one pressed charges... _Shiiit_. His parents are Penance and Hoshindo?! _Dayum._ ”

Hunk’s forehead wrinkled with sympathy. “Two supervillian parents? That’s gotta be hard man.”

“I think him mom only turned to the dark side that year. She was always nice whenever it was parents day.” Lance frowned in _possible_ compassion; he was still a major jerkwad before his mom decided to go all Winter Soldier on the superhero community.

Lance remembered the day Keith had that accident. It actually wasn't that much later after his mom was incarcerated the entire school was talking about it at the time. Thinking about it soured his stomach and made him feel colder than when he used his powers. Red covered his cheeks in shame. He remembered the fire engulfing the fire starter, how it licked up first his arms and haloing his face, illuminating his eyes as they turned into a lava gold. The rest of him followed quickly. So very, very quickly until it spread. It spread across the carpet, melting lockers, igniting homework and stray paper until it finally hit the janitor’s closet, the little flame of the DANGER: HAZARDOUS MATERIAL sign the first to warp coming alive for the briefest moments before everything was light and sound. The only thing that saved twelve-year-old Lance that day was the amount of power that he even didn’t know he could produce, forming an incredibly thick but small ice dome around him. It protected him from the heat and the fire well enough but not from the energy of the explosion that fractured his protection and threw him against the wall.

He shuddered out of the brief foray into his memories.

Yes, he would always remember the time he got Keith Kogane expelled.


	4. Pidge and Hunk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge and Hunk are honestly the greatest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just saying, I know nothing about tech speak, I completely bullshitted it. I looked up what would make a good computer and amped it up a bit.  
> The reason this is longer than the others is because I WANTED TO FINISH THIS DAMN FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
> 
> Also, in regards to klance... buckle up kids, it's going to be a rough ride and the destination is hell.

After that unwanted trip down memory lane they moved on from the topic of Keith. Though, just because they did didn’t mean that everyone else did. In between chemical equations and the proper mixing of different elements to make a formula compound cartridge to put in an ice ray whispers floated about the new kid. Just because Pidge can hack into the highest security of an underground government doesn’t mean that others can’t just Google and find the bare minimum.

Unless the students were there when the Garrison had that explosion, and even then the cause was hushed up, the gossip mill was revolving around his unsavory parentage.

_I heard he controls fire like Penance._

_What did his mom do again?_

_I bet he’s evil. His parents are evil. He’s going to be._

_Why do they even let kids of supervillains at this school?_

Lance could feel his mouth twist into a scowl. Sure, he mildly hated him and also felt really guilty about how he treated him and how, strike that first part, he actually didn’t really hate him but wished he did ( _God_ he wish he hated him. It would make things so much easier to just be angry with him for almost killing him but he knows that’s not how it went down… Let’s just call it Complicated.) _But_ , those were personal reasons. These people were just judging someone they don’t even _know_ and that’s something he just can’t tolerate.

He just gritted his teeth, slapped on a smile, and bothered his friends throughout the class. As he teased his friends it occurred to him that despite the article they have no idea of his part in the whole fiasco. The newspaper never mentioned him, sure he was looped in the other casualties but none of them were mentioned by name. When he got hurt he didn’t even tell Hunk how close he was to the explosion. His friend since the beginning of time fretted over him for the entire time he was healing, bringing him muffins, helping him with his notes and homework (the school didn’t have the common decency to just pass everyone but just moved the school sessions to another location), and was all around a great friend.

Pidge skipped two grades, the little genius. The next year, after the blow up, she (at the time) entered the Garrison into Hunk and Lance’s grade. It was a group project and at the time she was determined to do the entire thing herself, but quickly learned that she didn’t have to do everything herself. The child prodigy also learned since then that their new friends would have never treated them any differently despite being younger, most likely smarter (at least smarter than Lance), about their powers, or when they came out to them. Since then, they were always a close-knit group bound together by complimentary personalities, a level of understanding, and true platonic love.

Ha.

More like mockery, sarcasm, and mutual caffeine addictions.

It’s not like he couldn’t have easily slipped into another group; he did occasionally (he can’t be this charming without some practice once in a while). With his extroverted personality, ability to make people relax and laugh, and to smooth rough waters he made friends easily. In his opinion, the more friends the better. He had a code though. You do not leave a friend behind. Socially, physically, timely, emotionally or otherwise that is something that he would not do unless they say otherwise. Pidge and Hunk are his _best_ friends and he would _never_ leave them behind even if he had to drag them. They’re the absolute best and with no matter how many other friends he accumulates those two will always be at the top of the chart. He might be flighty at times and stupid (sometimes he wonders how they’re friends with _him_ ) but they’re both geniuses and they wouldn’t be friends with him without reason right?

He wondered if he should confess to them his involvement in the explosion back at the Garrison. He wondered for all of two seconds. He did not want them to know. It’s not like he didn’t trust them or anything but this was his thing. He’s not sure if they would look at him the same if they did. He said something that he can never take back again and the results were absolutely catastrophic. Not just to the entire west wing of the school but to other students, teachers, and… Keith.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Honestly, the kid looked like he’s card membership owner to a loner-emo-mysterious-stranger-you-wouldn’t-know-this band Hot Topic with the way he dresses.

It’s just sad.

Lance felt like the walking pile of laundry needed to be in a commercial with The Arms of an Angel playing in the background with an obscure actor asking for donations for this poor boy who doesn’t know how to dress like he’s not in the tundra.

Even with Lance’s inner commentary his stomach still does a sickening flip when Keith finally shown up for class. He should stop giving the guy so much crap, even in his own head, but… it’s like he doesn’t know _how._ After mentally pitting himself against him for so long it’s like he doesn’t know any other way to act around his rival. Also, it’s not like he can just say, ‘Hey, I did something incredibly shitty to you four years ago but sorry?’

As soon as he walked in the excess chatter dwindled in the room until the only noise was the faint buzz of the AC, even Pidge’s typing slowed down to three words a minute. The brunet noticed some of the other super kids, mainly the ones that don’t have to be on the school’s work-study, scowling or muttering to each other, disapproval painted on their faces.

They were always the type to look down on pretty much sixty percent of the damn population of the school because they, Lance included, could only be at Altea because of the work-study. They could be… _okay_ but times like this Lance felt like he needed to step in. Of course, in a subtle, understated way.

_”Oi!_ Firelord Zuko, over here!”

In his peripheral he noticed widened eyes and raised brows. He smirked.

That’s right people, if you’re going hate on the new guy do it for actual _reasons_. Like to interact and deem him hateable, like a _gentleman._

Keith warily looked at him and took in his other options. From the sneers and anxious looks the only semi-friendly terrain was Lance and his table. Holding the icemaker’s gaze Keith slowly wound his way through the tables and barstools, avoiding feet and stares. He slid in next to Pidge with at least two feet of space between them.

“Wow, Keith. Way to almost miss the first class of the day; there’s only, like, fifteen minutes left. Did you get lost?”

Keith met Lance’s challenging stare head-on, “If someone showed me where the class was like they were supposed to maybe I would’ve been on time.”

“What, you need me to stand outside Shiro’s office and hold your hand to class?” The brunet’s smile just short of mocking.

“Hi, I’m Hunk!”

The two elementals broke their stare down to look at Hunk, who was a little red-faced with a large yet somewhat awkward grin on his face created to hopefully break the tension.

Lance cleared his throat and dodged Keith’s grey-purple-blue (holy crap, just pick a color already) eyes. “Sorry, guys, this is Keith, Keith, the nerd patrol. We actually have a lot of classes with them as well as C lunch.”

Hunk leaned across the table, left arm bracing his weight on the table right arm extended. “Hey, nice to meet you Keith. Uh, my powers are metal manipulation, like, telekinesis but just for metal for whatever reason? If something’s got metal in it I can move it, change it, or whatever. I don’t know if this would be stepping out of bounds but there are welcoming people here so, just know that you do have friends here, Keith.”

Keith looked at the hand before him, which pinkened due to its proximity to his body heat. Foregoing the handshake he merely nodded in the friendly guy’s direction, not meeting his eyes. “Um, thanks, Hunk. That’s really nice of you.”

“Summing up what Hunk meant: ignore the haters, Keith. People can be jerks.” Pidge stopped what highly likely illegal things they might have been doing and stripped off her hoodie before turning to fully face the fire starter, face flushed red in splotches and forehead glistening. “I’m Pidge.” Their head tilted in that way that earned them their nickname. “You have very interesting powers. It seems like you also control heat like heat waves other than just fire; it feels like I’m sitting next to an oven baking at three fifty.”

Keith’s face reddened and scooted a little more away from the tiny person watching them like a hawk. “Sorry ‘bout that,” he mumbled.

Their hazel eyes widened and they leaned forward slightly with a wince, “Sorry, I didn’t mean that was a bad thing. It’s just that your powers are interesting. I mean, mine are pretty lame, they’re communicating with plants. Just listening or talking with them but they don’t really say anything interesting so it’s just mindless chatter unless someone’s mowing the lawn.”

“Why is it different when they’re mowing the lawn?”

“You know that cut grass smell? Well, it’s the grass telling other grass blades that they’re in danger. Because of my powers I can both smell and hear their screams.”

All three boys grimaced at the statement. “Does—does that mean you are, uh, a non-vegetarian?”

They waved a hand, “Nah, plants think of death differently, it’s not really death and kinda a hive mind. To them it’s the part of the life cycle and mowing the grass is just constantly beheading them. Grass is weird, they don’t say much and when my dad or brother mow the lawn I actually just hear a lot of ‘watch out!’ saying they scream was for dramatic effect.”

Pidge’s eyes flick over to Lance and burst into laughter. His eyes were confused slits of blue and his expressive mouth was pursed into a tight line with the corners dramatically turned downwards. “Geeze, all you’ve said to me when you’ve finally talked about your powers is that you could talk to them and ‘plants don’t have gender and neither do I.’”

They shrugged, “I just wanted to use the line and it was a perfect opportunity.”

Lance leveled a stare at the cheeky bird sitting across from them. “We have had this discussion, plants have both female and male parts!”

“And I say to that: semantics! And besides, as a community plants do not acknowledge gender!”

“Uh, I’m not sure how I feel about plants having a community.” Hunk piped in.

Pidge opened their mouth to probably say something mean or snarky when the bell rang. They pouted and started to put away their tech in an already bulky backpack and met brown, blue, and purplish eyes individually. “We are not done with this conversation. And if you’re going to join the squad mind turning down the heat?” They said while ignoring the muttered, “Turn down for what!” from Lance and the worried rambles of plants taking over the world from Hunk.

“Um, well it’s just—I’m not—I can’t—“

“Shhhh! Shush, shoosh, guys, shut up for a moment, the future Mrs. McClain is coming this way.”

 

* * *

 

 

Keith watched as the annoying asshole just an hour ago get the absolute stupidest look on his face, dopey grin, half-lidded eyes, all around sappy look. The recipient of that look was a tall girl with dyed blonde pigtails high on her head, black roots showing. She was wearing a teal crop top showing off her abdomen that couldn’t be within the school dress codes; at least with the low-waisted jeans she was sporting. She beamed a smile at the taller boy that was gaping at her. All that Lance needed was a cartoon tongue lolling out of his mouth.

Lance stopped drooling, slicked back his hair, which only fell back into place, and strode over to her with a, “Hey, beautiful, did the sun come out or did you just smile at me?” and shooting them some finger guns.

The weird thing was that the golden-skinned girl actually giggled at that. A far cry when Keith rolled his eyes they almost popped out of his skull.

The short kid next to him with the weird name, Pidge, rolled their eyes too. “That’s Nyma, the girl that Lance is infatuated with. She’s a technopath, which is sooo cool, I wish I was a technopath sometimes.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, but I’m good enough I don’t need it.” They said with a smug smile.

Hunk’s face popped up between them, glaring at the pair. Nyma was actually a little taller than Lance but somehow they still looked nice together. A towheaded guy in baggy sweats strolled up to the pair and Lance seamlessly kept him in the conversation, despite obviously interrupting his flirting. “I don’t like them. There’s something about those two…”

“Lance and Nyma?” Keith thought that Hunk and Lance were good friends?

“No! Nononono, not my bro, Rolo, the blond dude that came up next to Nyma and well, Nyma. There’s something about them that’s suspicious.” The large man tried to squint menacingly at them but just looked more like an angry bunny.

“But, Huunk! Beezer’s so cute!” Pidge started to pull Hunk’s larger arm back and forth. “He has a deca-core CPU, a signal range that can reach _Neptune_ , and _so fast_. I _have_ to know how Nyma made him. Did I mention that he’s programmed to make coffee too? And has cupholders?”

“Okay, that’s cool,” Hunk relented. “But just because they have a cool robot, which we could make a _way_ better one by the way, does not make them trustworthy!”

“But Hunk!”

“Pidge!”

“Don’t you have Rover?”

“You know I love Rover, he is my child, but I just reprogrammed him from one of Matt’s old robots, we need to _build_ something!”

“That’s what I’ve been saying!”

Keith looked on with amusement as they continued to go back and forth moving from how Hunk is right and always will be right to throwing ideas for a robot at each other. It seems as if they completely forgot that Keith was with them, which he was fine with, he knows next to nothing about robots and he just met them. It’s not as if they’re friends.

He still didn’t know where his next class was though and his guide is still preoccupied with badly flirting with the poor girl. Keith could feel the secondhand embarrassment that Lance didn’t seem to have. He looked down at his class schedule that Shiro gave him.

After this class is Weapons with Steel Spirit or Mr. Ryuu, his civilian name, in room B-340. It seemed that the classes flip-flopped between regular high school classes like Math and English with classes more suitable for powers and combat like Weapons and Terrain Training.

He peeked at where his guide was failingly flirting with his hostage. Or maybe not as failing because she kept humoring him. Should he attempt to find his way on his own? Should he just leave? Pidge and Hunk were still discussing their plans for their robot, would it be rude to leave without saying anything or would they even notice?

Keith started to shuffle to the side, maybe if he moved slowly they wouldn’t notice?

Eh, fuck it.

He spun in the direction he _thought_ is B-340 but hit something akin to a brick wall. He looked up to see someone or some _thing_ big, hulking, and with a cybernetic arm.

The brick house in front of him barely budged as he turned around shouting, “Watch it!” loud enough for the entire hallway to take notice. After a brief pause people still continued on their way to their prospective classes, apparently used to this guy’s outburst. Some stayed behind to watch with curious eyes as they noticed the new meat standing defiantly against the behemoth.

Black eyes scrutinized Keith from beanie to boots before sneering at the lack of response. Keith merely looked at him, boredom on his face. He knew guys like him, those who thrived off of fear, who thought they were big shots because they were bigger or thought they were meaner or more threatening and that nothing could touch them.

Those mean eyes widened in recognition before baring his teeth in some resemblance of a smile. “Penance’s prodigy, here to start shit like your old man?” He leaned forward, egg and onion breath sucker punching Keith right in the nostrils. “Listen here, reject, you’re not the only one here with a super villain parent or even one with powerful powers.” Keith could feel his nose scrunch with the repeating smell, as well at the words ‘powerful powers’ dumbass can’t even look up a synonym. “I can _crush_ you if I want, so, if you don’t want shit I suggest staying out of my way. Got it?”

Keith looked at the dick with breakfast breath right in the eye. The guy’s wide face taking up most of his vision with how much he was trying to get in his face. Obviously dyed violet hair glinting in the harsh florescent lights of the school, his short bangs damp with sweat. Keith wondered if he could just let himself go just a little bit. To not hold back and really see how much he could just straight up _melt_ this asshole in front of him.

No, no. Bad Keith. He’s not evil and he has kept a lid on his powers ever since they started to get out of control, badly, but no one’s got hurt as much as that one kid that ate it back then. He moved past it. And he’ll never have to see him again for the rest of his life. He just needed to get past this asshole.

“I think… the only thing you need to worry about is getting a mint.”

“Acting like a dick isn’t going to make yours any bigger, _Sean_.”

A short green figure flanked Keith’s left while a larger presence came up on his right. “Ha, good one Pidge! ‘Cuz he’s a dick and is overcompensating for his insecurities.”

_Sean_ stabbed a finger at the Samoan, “Shut your mouth, Garrett, I wouldn’t say much without your superhero to save you.” A cursory glance over them and the douchebag scoffs, “Whatever, you _sidekicks_ aren’t worth it.”

The trio watches as he struts off with as much swagger as he can manage, all three of them having a simultaneous eye roll at his posturing. Hunk peeks behind them and breathes a sigh of relief seeing how effectively Nyma distracted the charming Cuban. “Thank God Lance didn’t see that. He can’t afford another demerit right now.“

“Oh, come on. Last time was funny,” Pidge said with a half smile.

Keith decided he didn’t want to know. What did was the sidekick insult. “What’s with the comment about being sidekicks? I thought Altea didn’t do the hero, sidekick test?”

“Yeah, the school might not do it but that doesn’t stop people, especially other supers with more ‘heroic’ powers, from thinking the school is wasted on us ‘sidekicks’. Guys like, _Sean_ , ugh, I hate _Sean_. Seriously? Who the heck names their kid _Sean?_ _Sean Dach_ of all things, that’s just asking for him to get beat up if he didn’t have super strength. Anyways, those guys think that the supers who don’t have dangerous powers are weak or that resources are wasted because we can’t take down a building in point oh five seconds. Ergo, since we’re more or less ‘useless’ some call us sidekicks.” The botanilinguist explained.

“Come on, guys, let Lance work his charm, Pidge, that’s not nice, and let’s go to class. We all have Weapons next, we’ll show you, Keith.”

Keith looked between the friendly smile of Hunk and the mischievous smirk of Pidge, both expectant and open. They seem to be vastly different people, not only in size and stature but personality-wise as well, yet both seemed to have accepted him without regard of everything else and despite the initial dislike of their third friend. He didn’t even contribute much to their friend group and is now on the shit list from the friendly neighborhood douchecanoe. He thought back to his conversation with Shiro earlier.

_What if I don’t want any friends?_

_Trust me. Even if you say you don’t want any they’ll come find you. And you will_ never _get rid of them._

Looking at the duo Keith smiled. Small but genuine. “Thanks, Hunk, that’d be great.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that Sendak is, like, waaaaaay too old for high school but I needed a petty high school antagonist and Sean Dach was perfect and such an douchy high school name!
> 
> whyiskeithsohardtowriteohmyjesusi'mtryingtonotmakehimtooemobutwithproperemotionalresponsesandi'mnotsurehowtogetthathappymediumjesuschristmylord
> 
> This chapter does not reflect my feelings on the name Sean (。・艸-。)-☆　ｗiйκ


	5. Racing and Volcanoes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith turns on volcanoes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M FINALLY DONE!   
> I'm so sorry it took so long getting this one out, for some strange reason this one just wouldn't quit until I was just "I'M ENDING THIS!" I hope this is okay because I just can't look at it anymore.

“Uff!” Keith glared at the back of the douche that shoved him into the lockers. He barely repressed a snarl as he pushed off of the locker, his hands imprinted in the now-soft metal. Wincing, he scurried off before the owner of the locker came by, if it’s any consolation his gloves are ruined too, but they’ll probably not see it that way.

He softly clapped to put out the smoking fabric and hurried down the nearly empty hallway. The rest of the people didn’t shove him against the locker, in fact, gave him a wide berth. He’s not sure which one’s worse.

He knew high school was going to suck ass. Evidence: see four years ago. He’s already gotten shit from a bunch of people the first few days of school for having not one, but two, supervillain parents. And it’s not like he can’t hear the whispers, malicious, curious, or the ones with the slight undertone of fear. He didn’t blame them, they have the right to be afraid, it didn’t stop the fact it was very isolating though. He did like being alone but being forced onto the fringes of school society rubbed him the wrong way.

Yet…

He was relieved.

Two weeks into his high school career and nothing but just some dumbasses being dumbasses. Nothing on fire, nothing exploding, hell, he even made some quasi-friends. Even if those friends are friends with one of the most annoying idiots on this whole damn Earth.

Honestly, what’s his deal?

Whenever he had an answer in class Lance would try to beat him to the answer. He challenged him to who could get more points on a worksheet. He would subtly try to be slightly faster than him when walking down the hall. Starting random arguments about something that was said until they ended up in a shouting match over the quality of the school’s _pudding._ Just really random annoying shit. Keith wasn’t even trying to do anything! And if Lance wasn’t looking like him like he insulted his mother Lance was looking constipated. The first time Keith noticed he asked if the other boy needed to use the restroom but that just resulted in Lance declaring he was besmirching his honor or something.

Keith didn’t understand Lance. Sure he has to be around him whenever he’s at school but he still included him with his friends? Being partners during class was a requirement when needed but he didn’t have to sit with him or include him with his friends. He just needed to be in the same room as Keith really.

He’ll worry about it later. It was Wednesday and he needed to meet Coach Rush for moving the lava walls for the Terrain class later. One of the few times Lance didn’t have to babysit him.

Keith speed-walked down the hall, taking the longer but least crowded pathways. He stopped in front of the stairs and paused, around the corner was the elevator, and it was six floors down. Stairs? Or elevator? He should probably conserve energy for the lava walls.

He punched the down button with his thumb and crossed his arms to wait for the old elevator. It finally dinged down to his floor and opened to reveal Shay. Keith offered a smile as he stepped in.

Shay was the other person who was working for Coach Rush on the lava walls. She was a tall girl with coffee bean skin and warm amber eyes, and one of the nicest people he has ever met. Add to the fact he doesn’t have to worry about accidentally hurting her, she was aces. Her powers were to physically turn into crystal and in that state it’s nearly impossible for her to get hurt, but she’s slow, mobile but slow. He’s hypothesized that it was possibly diamond but she just laughed and said it was a lot better than diamonds.

“Hi, Shay.”

“Hello, Keith! Are you ready for the lava walls?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. Think you can keep up?”

She laughed airily. “I’m sure I’ll manage.”

Keith was about to quip back but flickering lights interrupted him. They both looked up as the lights flickered on and off like they were in a bad horror film before they finally gave up the ghost and the entire elevator stalled.

The two looked at each other before looking at the control panel. Neither moved as the dim emergency lights came on. Shay broke the silence. “So, should we press the emergency button?”

Keith pursed his mouth before shrugging. Licking his lips he asked, “Does this normally happen?”

“It has happened, it’s an old castle, but it’s never happened to me.”

Before either could move the elevator stuttered and was descending again. The emergency lights turned off as the brighter yellow-toned fluorescents took over. Keith noticed the sheen of sweat on Shay’s dark skin he didn’t notice before.

He swallowed the upcoming lump. “I’m, uh, really sorry about…” He made a vague gesture indicating… everything.

She smiled kindly, eyes sympathetic. “Don’t worry about it Keith. I hope you don’t find this rude but, it doesn’t seem you…”

“Have control?” She nodded. “I… struggle with it sometimes.”

“Well, that’s why you’re here right? I’m here because, well, I really want to see the world and being here… helps.”

He looked at her curiously; she seems to have perfect control over her powers. He couldn’t imagine her hurting anyone or having issues with her powers that she needs help with.

She noticed his look and fiddled with the gold hoops in her ears, blushing slightly. “Uhm, as you know my powers is to turn my body into crystal, Balmarean crystal actually, and for me to make the crystal it actually takes some of my… energy? From me. And the crystal is physically a part of me, even when I’m not transformed, so it… saps? Life force from me. And being here has helped me stabilize my life force with the crystal so it doesn’t take so much out of me.”

She looked over to see his eyes wide and mouth ajar, she chuckled softly under her breath. “Uh, oh, wow. I—I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” He stammered.

“It’s fine, I’ve had my powers since I was a youngling. I’ve grown used to it but being at Altea has only helped me with my powers and it can help you too.”

He smiled at her. “Thank you, Shay.”

The door dinged and the doors swooshed open. He let Shay out first and followed her down the hall to the Terrain room. It was the same room where they play Save the Citizen, there was always the classic of the citizen being dangled precariously over sharp rotating blades but they liked to mix it up with the Terrain class.

Terrain class went over different scenarios that could happen and how to survive in those environments with or without a supervillain or monster. Save the Citizen was more of a game that everyone liked to compete against each other but still good training, especially with teamwork. They liked to put the Citizen in more and more ridiculous scenarios that was originally part of the Terrain class. There hasn’t been a situation where a real life citizen has ever been held over an active volcano in decades. Some of the scenarios that they’re putting this fake doll in are only seen in movies or comic books. How is knowing the best way to escape boiling lava preparing future superheroes he asks you?

The weird scenarios of Save the Citizen were so popular that it eventually became a tournament that happens during the school year. There’s some sort of prize at the end and people pair up in teams unlike the random pairs chosen during class. Villains and heroes duke it out until there’s one big showdown between the top hero and villain team. None of the teams have been decided so far from what Shay said. They want the students to get used to classes before some bite off more than they can chew. It’s only rarely that it becomes unbalanced where the final battle is between two heroes or two villain teams, but if it does the heroes compete who can rescue the Citizen the fastest and the villains just try to defeat each other.

Keith found it kinda stupid. He can understand some of the lessons that come with it, teamwork, home advantage and disadvantage, unknown situations, and it would be useful to fight against other supers, but he still finds it stupid. The future superheroes that might actually _have to save people_ should be learning the most common scenarios that would be happening, which would be in cities and for protecting real citizens. Not for stupid reasons like prizes or a tournament. What are the chances that someone is going to be battling other supers in some underwater cavern or a foreign jungle and not some building? Or even a street?

“And the last one!” Cheered Shay as she deposited the dormant lava wall from her crystalized back. She turned to him and gave him an angular smile, the crystal giving her sharp edges and straight lines but glowing from within, a physical representation of her disposition.

The teal, glowing crystals that made up her body dulled and cracked as bits and pieces chipped off of her. Perfect Balmarean shards fell into a pile at her feet, no longer glowing with her life force, until all that was left was a smiling Shay.

Kicking aside some of the discarded jewels she slipped off to the side to the Safe

Zone. “Your turn, Keith!”

Keith looked over at the field in front of him. Seven craggy miniature volcanoes dotted across the floor. Bumpy with carved out lines from use but wide and tall enough that it could be scaled. The floor itself was reminiscent of the soil and land surrounding a real volcano but with that Hollywood effect. Raised platforms as solitary islands for when the lava starts flowing and surrounds the isolated landmasses for the superkids to maneuver from.

While the heat from the manufactured lava didn’t hurt him it did a bit more damage to his clothing despite being fire retardant. In the contained environment of the gym he felt confident enough to at least strip down to his T-shirt and leggings. He wasn’t risking his boots so he toed them off too and tossed them to the Safe Zone.

In his holey socks he climbed up the fourteen feet to the mouth of the mini volcano and dropped down, bending his knees on impact. He should probably climb down as this killed his knees but who had the time? Shuffling around he felt for the thick metal tube in the faux volcano and the connector in the floor that would transfer the magma. Slotting them together he scrambled as quickly as he could out of the throat of the volcano and slid as best as he could down the face to the others.

One by one he attached the mechanism as the former dormant volcanoes filled with lava and sluggishly spilled over the lips. The molten rock flowed down the worn crevices and onto the floor forming the deadly terrain for the freshmen. Keith doesn’t know where the lava goes after the class but he’s just happy he doesn’t have to clean it up.

When he attached the last one he scrambled down the last fake volcano skidding over to Shay with quite a few more holes in his clothing than before. He stopped quite a few ways away as she wasn’t in her crystal form and started to add his layers back on. He was in the midst of poking his head through his dark red pullover hoodie when a shout paused him.

“Kogane!”

He looked up to the top of the bleachers to see Coach Rush in all her glory, sweats and a zip-up. In a blink she was in front of him, hot air blowing his bangs back, she smoothed her brown ponytail before smirking at him. Coming up at five foot nothing she came up to his chin but that didn’t stop her from being one of the more intimidating teachers at Altea with her tendencies to just throw the kids in any situation that might prove difficult. Literally. The first week he was there he saw her throw a sophomore into a pit of snakes for class. The kid’s superpower was transforming into a mouse.

She looked at him with mischievous green eyes, “Has someone told you about the SC Tournament?” Slowly, he nodded. She nodded, half a smile on her pixie features, and pointed at him. “You would be great at it, have you thought about entering?”

His eyes darted around him landing on the bleachers, the glass barriers separating the seats from the fiery topography, Shay, and back to Coach Rush. He scooted a little farther away, snatching up his shoes and slipping them on, keeping his focus on tying firm knots. “Not really.” He started on the other. “I haven’t even played Save the Citizen yet or know anyone to be my partner.”

She hummed. “Shame. You’re quick, and that’s from me. We’ll play Save the Citizen next Friday; we still have about a week after that to set up the roster let me know by then. I think you’d be good. I gotta go grade stuff, good job you two!” She flashed a quick smile and a double thumbs-up before disappearing in a…rush... of wind.

Keith looked over at Shay who only laughed. He finished putting on the rest of his clothes and firmly putting his beaning back on his head before prodding the comfortable silence with a question. “Are you planning on entering the tournament?”

“Yes actually! My brother Rax and I are participating.”

“You have a brother?”

They started to walk back to the elevator, Shay pushed one half of the double doors open and Keith ducked under her arm. “I do. His powers are very similar to mine, he can form the crystals separate from his body but it’s a similar effect.”

He felt relief when the elevator doors opened, not because he didn’t like talking to her but he didn’t really have anything to say to that. That relief died a swift death when those doors revealed Lance.

He didn’t notice Keith yet too distracted with talking to a pretty girl next to him. His hair was wet, slightly curling as it dried, and his blue baseball tee and jeans were damp and clinging to his body drawing attention to his shoulders and waist. Keith scowled. Who put their clothes on directly after swimming? That’s disgusting.

Lance looked over, a bright smile on his face, at least before he saw Keith. The girl next to him nudged him, the petulant frown on his face relaxed into another big grin when he saw Shay. “Shay-bae! How’s it going?”

“Nothing much. Keith and I just finished with the volcano obstacle course.”

“ _Keith_ helped?! And they’re going to allow children on that?!”

“Hey!” Keith shouted, taking an unintentional step forward.

“I-I’m sure it’s fine!” interrupted Shay, waving her hands an attempt to calm the two boys down. “Even Coach Rush said that Keith was good, she even said he should sign up for the Tournament.”

The doors were about to close until Lance pushed them open again. _”Reeeaally?_ Keith here? Epic emo child, I-work-alone boy wonder? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him work with _anyone._ He couldn’t do it, it would be against nature.”

Keith could feel his eye twitch. Where the hell does this guy get off on thinking he knows him so well? They’ve only known each other for a few weeks and most of that time they were bickering! He could work on a team if he wanted to, if he wasn’t working with an idiot. Which doesn’t seem likely at this point since Lance was going to be his partner. Granted, he’s actually right in the fact that he prefers to be working alone and has for pretty much the entirety of his school career but he could work with others if he wanted to! He could do well it Pidge, or maybe not since her powers are plant based, Pokémon did teach him something… He could work with Hunk, at a distance, or even Shay! Hell, with Shay’s powers he wouldn’t have to worry about burning her! But she said she’s teamed up with her brother.

Bottom line was that he could kick ass in the Tournament with the right person.

When he said just that Lance just gave him a smirk and pushed the door open again. “Please, with your prickly personality it would be a miracle that someone would put up with you’re as—butt.”

The girl next to him burst into laughter, her teal-blue hair drying in the proximity of Keith’s powers. “Oh my God, Lance! You’re still doing that? You’re mother’s not here, I’m sure you’ll be fine to swear.”

Lance looked seriously at the girl, tipping his head down the slightest bit to make sure his navy eyes met her cerulean ones. “Plax,” He paused, his eyes squinted and turned into something towards pleased surprise. “…You might be right. My mother isn’t here! Ha! Keith! You are an a—“ His pants buzzed. He reached into his pocket and swiped a few times on the screen, his face going through a series of emotions before deciding on a deadpan stare he leveled a Plax. “That’s a my mother.”

Despite the dead serious delivery of that statement the taller boy’s lips twitched and the girl, Plax, sputtered out a bark of laughter before giving up and snorted while Shay gave a polite giggle.

“Oh my God, your mother knows all,” Plax breathed, hand to her heart.

Lance shrugged and stopped the doors from closing once again. “She always seems to know. And _oh my God_ , just get in the elevator!”

While Shay hurried in Keith paused. The elevator was on the smaller side and there were quite a few more people, in the forms they are now he could hurt all of them. Would it be safe with his kind of powers?

“Are you coming, Keith?” Shay asked.

“Umm…”

“Just get in here, Mullet. You were just using your powers right? I’m always colder when I use my powers. If it gets too steamy I’ll just turn up the AC.”

Okay, this. This here is why Keith doesn’t get Lance. He acts like a jerk eighty percent of the time but then he does other stuff like this! Covering for him for his lack of control. He’s not blind and he’s not stupid but he just doesn’t understand what’s going on in that frosted over brain of his! Either be a jackass or not, he’s fine with either; just pick one!

Nonetheless, he crosses the threshold before the doors close again. He goes to stand as far away as he can from the rest.

Until Plax started to move closer to him. “Lance,” she whined. “We just got out of the pool and you’re making me freeze to death. I’m standing by Keith.”

Eyes wide Keith practically _lurched_ towards Lance, scrambling to make sure that he didn’t touch anyone. When he was on the opposite side of Lance everyone stared at him and his face flared with new heat, smoking his hat and counteracting the cold he could feel from Lance. “I—uh—I’m a little too hot right now.”

Lance looked physically _pained_ for a brief moment. Keith checked to see if he touched him before Lance blurted, “Hot damn!”

Keith looked at him, face screwed up in confusion while Shay giggled and Plax snorted again.

_”What?_ ”

“You know the song? By Bruno Mars? _I’m too hot! Hot Damn!”_

_”What?”_

Lance looked him up and down, but not in the constipated or disbelieving way that Keith’s used to but more contemplative. “We’ll work on it.”

It was then that Keith noticed how chilly where he was. Plax was right; standing next to Lance was how he imagined being in a meat locker was. He was actually cold, and he was _never_ cold. Except for that one time, but it still threw him for a loop.

Was it just Lance trying to out-do his heat powers? Sounds like something stupid he would do. It also occurs to him that he might not be producing enough heat, but he’s been sending off heat waves enough to roast marshmallows to a perfect golden brown since he was thirteen, why would he stop now?

The cold was starting to recede a bit. “Dude, you need to chill out. Heh, get it? Chill out? But I have an idea, here.” Lance reached for his hand and Keith bodily recoiled, left hand as far away from his as he could get.

“What? _No!”_

Lances brow furrowed. “Dude, like I said, chill out. It’ll be fine; you won’t get cooties or anything. Just—let me—c’mon—dude! Just give me your hand!”

“No! I’ll burn you! Are you stupid?”

“You won’t burn me! My powers are ice; it’ll be fine! I wanna try something! If you would—just—work with me here, gah!” Lance stepped back heaving a breath, hands up like Keith has a gun on him. “Fine. Okay, you win.”

Slowly, Keith lowered his guard. Lance stuffed his hands in his pockets so Keith crossed his arms. He shifted his weight to one hip, waiting for their floor. Looking over he noticed that Lance engaged Shay and Plax in a conversation. It made him frown, he didn’t want Lance to burn himself by trying to do something stupid but he so easily forgot about his existence for a couple of cute girls. Some guide.

He turned to look at the numbers at the top of the elevator, only two more floors left. He could feel their powers trying to battle each other; every so often the temperature would get slightly warmer or colder. Not enough to be uncomfortable but enough to be noticeable.

“AH-HA!”

“AHHH!”

Lance straight up tackled him to the floor! This guy had a fucking death wish or something! He shoved at the body on top of him with his clothed shoulder and elbowed him in the stomach. “What the fuck, Lance!”

“Ha! Told you it’ll be fine!”

Keith looked down to see Lance grasping the back of his hand. The hand with the ruined fingerless gloves that showed patches of skin through. Lance didn’t recoil or shout in pain but there was steam hissing from their two hands.

“What the fuck.”

“Mamá told me that with our powers like they are they should naturally cancel each other out. Like if we focus our energy on one point, like our hands, everything else should be relatively the same temperature. Mamá Martinez knows all.”

“I thought your last name was McClain, Lance?” Shay asked.

“That’s his last name, his mother just didn’t take his father’s last name,” Plax replied. “And his mom works with super-powered kids, she should know.” Plax sounded proud, almost like she’s speaking about her own mother than her friend’s.

“Oh! That’s interesting, what does your mother do, Lance?”

Lance pulled Keith up by the hand but Keith kept staring at Lance’s hand in his. In all honesty the entire conversation seemed very distant, like all these people were shouting from across the school.

He guessed it makes sense; Lance and him did have completely different powers so one theoretically would cancel the other. He focused his attention to the temperature and for once since he was eleven he wasn’t running hot. He shivered, not used to the lack of heat.

The doors opened on their floor not long after. Once Shay and Plax stepped off the elevator Keith quickly, but not too quickly, it didn’t bother him at all, ripped his hand out of Lance’s and crossed his arms.

Lance’s face was red high on his cheeks but he rolled his eyes dramatically. “Come on, we have Slav next. You need o make this class more than anyone.”

“What the hell does that supposed to mean?”

“It _means_ we need to get to class, you pyro.”

While he would have loved to stay and put Lance through the inquisition the warning bell rang and they only had two minutes to get to the Analysis of Property Destruction and Prevention on the second floor.

Lance sprinted off in the direction of the stairs. “Race ya!”

“You cheater!”

 

* * *

 

 

Keith briefly wondered if the flying school bus could just drop him down the chimney. He might ask the bus driver next time because trudging all the way from the bus stop is way too much work after Wednesdays. He’s done exercise before but he’s been homeschooled for four years and there’s not much required physical labor with that unlike _activating seven volcanoes._

“Scarlet, I’m home!”

“I’m in the kitchen!”

Keith walked in expecting her to be cooking something; usually he helps by taking things out of the oven with no oven mitts. He’s really helpful cooking bacon in the morning when the hot oil starts attacking.

What he didn’t expect was Scarlet frowning hard enough to pull a deep V in her brow, staring at the envelope in her hand like it did her a great injustice. Her amber eyes darted up to him and back to the mail. She frowned even harder and bit her lip. Finally she sighed and pulled out a chair for him and handed him the letter when he sat down.

Carefully, he took it, holding it by the edges. “What’s this?” The address on the envelope was messy and looked like the en was losing ink by the repeated indents and sputtered out ink. In a handwriting that decorated his childhood with notes and permission slips.

“It’s a letter from your mother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it super villain, supervillain, or super-villain??


	6. Songs and Kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance plays the piano and goes to a coffee shop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are going to hate me. *hides behind shield* I'm ready
> 
> Also I'm really sorry for my Spanish, it's been, like, 4 years since Spanish class.

Lance sprinted down the rest of the way that led up to his front door, backpack thumping rhythmically against his side. He slung his bag from his shoulder, got his keys, and opened the door shouting, “Did you kids remember your Temper Gummies?”

“Yeah!” a voiced piped up.

Two sets of feet scampered down the stairs followed by a loud thump and a shout. Lance dropped his bag in the entryway, let the door swing shut, and rushed over to see his two younger sisters piled on top of each other. The shorter one struggled under the other who slumped even further, crushing their sibling under them.

“Melodyyyyy! Get _off!_ _Lance!_ ”

Smothering his chuckles back he hoisted the older sister by the armpits, releasing the younger. Despite Melody going limp in his hold, increasing her weight tenfold—what is his mother feeding this girl?—he held her under one arm like a football.

Cora, the rambunctious eight-year old, leapt up and fled the room shouting, “Freedom! Sweet freedom!”

Melody’s body shook with laughter and peered up at her big brother through her chestnut bangs. Her big blue eyes sparkling with mirth. He scrunched up his nose in a exaggerated glare. “Did you guys really take your gummies?”

She nodded and he dropped her, she landed on the carpet with a little _poof,_ her little body splayed as she embraced the floor. He stood over her for a second or two before abandoning his own flesh and blood.

It was only a few more seconds she lay prone before she skipped up and followed him into the living room. “Cora! Do you have homework?” he yelled into the house.

“No!” Her faint voice drifted from somewhere on the other side of the house.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m in third-grade, how much homework do you think I have?” Her voice steadily decreased from shouting to a reasonable decibel as she walked through the door with a handful of cookies.

“I dunno,” he swiped two cookies while Melody stole another despite their sister’s cry. “Maybe they’re secretly having you work on government secrets under the guise of homework.”

“Pfftt,” Cora rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right, _hermano._ ” She flopped on the couch, lengthwise, dark hair fanned out over the cushions. Scrounging out the remote from between the cushions she turned on the TV and put on some cartoon that he hasn’t kept up with.

He turned away from the kid in the bear hat talking to a girl that was made of fire to Melody who was patiently waiting on the piano bench, flipping through her music sheets.

He sat next to her on a bench that barely fit two people, but would comfortably sit a ten-year-old and a gremlin. So if Pidge could teach his sister piano then that would be great, but she doesn’t, so he either sits with his left butt cheek off the bench or get a bigger bench. Sadly, the bigger bench won’t fit in the living room so half butt cheek it is.

“Are you sure you didn’t change your mind on the piano?”

She shook her head as the tapped a simple tune on the keys. Listening closely, he could hear the slightly out of tune Yankee Doodle Dandy.

“Y’know, the guitar is pretty cool, I could teach you the guitar. And it’s mobile!”

She stared intently at him, sky blue eyes piercing his soul, as she played out the theme song for Charlie Brown, slowly but forceful.

He raised his hands in surrender. “Fine, fine, I get it. I’m just saying there might be better options out there than the piano.”

After a few hours at the piano he could hear the door click thrice, one in one direction and the second in the other and one last firm one. “What have I told you about locking this door!”

Lance winced and bit his tongue before responding. “Sorry, _Mamá_! Won’t happen again!”

“That’s what you always say, _tonto_.”

His mother came over to the piano and ruffled his hair and kissed his forehead then Melody’s. “ _Mijo,_ the day you remember to lock the door is the day the world ends.”

She walked over where Cora was passed out on the couch and maneuvered her dead-to-the-world body to something more comfortable before collapsing on the couch. After a minute she rustled out stacks of paper out of her bag and set them next to her on the well-loved sofa.

“Taking home work again? Tsk, tsk, tsk, what would dad say?”

“Well considering he’s away on a case that would make him a hypocrite.” She stuck her tongue out at him and he reciprocated with Melody peeking from behind him to back him up.

He took out his phone and looked up a sheet music on it. Might as well make the last bit of practice time fun. The printer in the office adjacent to the living room whirring loudly as he found the one he wanted. His mom always did her work in the living room with the kids, why she has an office he doesn’t know.

“Can I know who it is?” he asked as he walked to get the music sheets.

His mother doesn’t bother answering him until he’s back in the room. “You know it’s confidential but I will say that it’s a win.”

Lance nodded. “Cool, cool… are you meeting Plax tomorrow?”

“Yes, I assume she told you?”

“Yeah, it’s the monthly report, but I will say that she’s been doing great at school if you want my opinion.”

His _mamá_ looks at him with her big brown eyes. “Lance, you know that I don’t think that Plaxum is a bad kid. These check-ins are to make sure that she’s adapting.”

Lance pursed his lips and tapped out the notes slowly, hearing that familiar tune that his sisters were playing since the movie came out. Melody’s worried frown turned into a smile that showed every tooth including the adorable crooked canine. She clapped and eagerly started to copy his finger movements in the higher key. He said without looking up from the keyboard, “I know. It, it just feels like you’re treating her like she’s… she’s a _villain_ or something. Like you’re checking in because you don’t trust her.”

“Lance, _mijo_ , it’s not like that at all.” She got up and stood next to the piano, arms folded on top. “I know that it might look like it but I can’t change the system. Even if they’re good kids the government wants to make sure that the public is safe and this is the solution they’ve come up with. Kids of supervillains make the public uneasy and it’s either monthly lunch dates with me or her not going to school.”

He didn’t stop playing but let his head drop closer to her. She carded her fingers through his hair soothingly before moving around the bench and crouching down next to his sister. “I just don’t think it’s _fair_.”

“It’s not fair, _mijo_. But education is important and with education she can help the world be a little less unfair.” She smiled and pecked Melody’s cheek. “ _Buen trabajo, mija!_ _Qué canción es esto? Suena familiar._ It sounds familiar.”

He snuck a look at his sister who snuck one back to him with a little smile. Nope. She wasn’t talkin’, in Spanish or otherwise. Maybe they should try sign language next.

Lance knew she tried to change the subject. He knew that she would answer if he continued but decided to let it die, he answered for Melody and his mother. “It’s Evermore, Mamá. Someone put up the piano sheet music for it.”

“Remind me which is Evermore, _mijo_?”

“You know,” He started from the beginning, Melody’s fingers tangling with his before she took them back. His voice was a little too high to match Josh Groban. “ _I was the one who had it all. I was the master of my fate. I never needed anybody in my life. I learned the truth too late._ ”

“Ooooh! Beauty and the Beast!”

“Yeah,” He slowed his fingers and put Melody’s small hands back on the keys, pointing to the notes on the sheet music, letting her make her way through them. “Can I go out tomorrow?”

“Lance, it’s a school night.”

He looked at her, mouth agape. “Mamá! It’s Saturday tomorrow!”

Her body jerked and she whipped out her phone, going to her calendar app. “What?! It can’t be Friday already!” Her shoulders slump and her head cants to the side. “It’s Friday. Where does the time go.”

“You said you were meeting Plax tomorrow! Didn’t you know which day!”

“I knew that I was meeting her tomorrow I just didn’t realize it was Friday!”

_”Aye por dios.”_ Lance laughed.

His mom hit him on the shoulder with her phone over his little sister. “ _Aye_ , don’t swear!”

He held up his hands with Melody ducking underneath them. _”Lo siento, lo siento, Mamá!”_ She stopped her assault, with a disapproving frown. He tried not to laugh, as he was sure she would try to beat the swear words out of his brain. She had a weird Cuban-Catholic-mother spider-sense whenever any of her children were swearing. He might have speculated with his older siblings whether or not she secretly had a superpower to sense swearwords from her offspring despite evidence of her being a civilian. “So can I go out tomorrow?”

She rolled her eyes, her entire body following dramatically. “I _suppose_. Is it with that superkid you were talking about?”

Lance flushed red. He allowed his lips to slip into a sly smile. “Maybe.”

 

* * *

 

_It’s just for coffee. It’s just for coffee._ The mantra in his head was on repeat as he made his way to the local coffee shop. He tried to calm his heartbeat, the constant thumping against his breastbone distracting. There was nothing to worry about! He was _Lance_ the most controlled superkid at Altea High! He was cool as ice. Ice Ice Baby was his theme song. Nothing could shake him. Not explosions, not a fire-powered mullet, not Professor Slav on one of his million of dimension possibility calculation ramblings, and certainly not a coffee date.

He approached the glass doors. He took a deep breath and exhaled his worries out. _She said yes to the date. She said yes to the date. She likes you. There’s nothing to worry about. It’ll go great._

He walked through the doors and in the sunny corner with a frothy frosted thing, a teal straw with a pink ring poking out of the whipped cream, was his date. Dyed blonde hair pulled into two perky pigtails, her black roots only serving to make her that more noticeable, as if anyone wouldn’t be already in awe and staring. Her normally warm brown eyes purple and larger from the colored circle lenses and golden skin glowed in the sunlight.

He put on a winning smile. “Hey, Nyma, did I keep you waiting?”

Her pink, pink lips tugged into a smile. “It’s fine, you’re right on time. I like that.”

He relaxed some and slouched into the comfy armchair across from her. He made a show of looking around the quiet coffee shop, empty except for the barista. “You might be asked to leave soon. You’re making the other women look bad.”

She giggled wind chimes and sparkling water and his heart took a dive. What he wouldn’t do to hear that laugh again. She leaned forward, the neckline of her top dipping. “Very smooth, very smooth. I should call you Google, because you have everything I’m looking for.”

He clutched his hands to his heart and collapsed back into the cushions. His heart, his heart! Peeking and eye open he could see the cute little wrinkle in her nose when she giggles at his antics. He let his hands fall and let head fall to the side, soft smile apparent. “Out of all your beautiful curves, your smile is my favorite.”

She stopped laughing and blushed red across her cheekbones and it was the cutest thing he’s ever seen. “Seriously, you’ve got to stop being so cute or else you’re going to put me into cardiac arrest.”

“Lance!” She playfully hit him on the knee. “You’re making me blush!”

He smiled again. “All in a day’s work, beautiful.”

She set aside her drink and scooted forward in her chair and took his hands between hers. “Lance,” She smiled softly at their joined hands and rubbed her thumbs in distracting circles on his skin. “I wanna be honest with you.” She took a deep breath. “I—I really, really, _really_ like you. I like your smile, I like your positive attitude, and I love your eyes... I would really like us to date. Exclusively.” She peeked up at him with her heart-stopping eyes.

Lance felt his heart stop and race double-time. He tugged on her hands to get a little closer, her head tilted in confusion before he slotted their lips together. She melted against him, head tilting further for him to get better access, scooting closer until her hands wrapped around his neck. Her breath was sweet and smelled of coffee and he could feel the stickiness of her lipstick. His hand drifted up to cradle her head, the warmth of her skin permeating the slight coolness of his skin from when he used his powers that morning when he iced the floor of his sisters’ room as a prank.

He slowly broke the kiss, out of breath. Looking at her perfect face her eyes were still closed and her lips still parted. Looking at those pink-smudged lips he pecked them one last time then her nose, smearing some of that pink on that little button. She giggled. Eyes still closed her lips tilted into a smile, relaxed, he felt his face heat. It was a good thing she had her eyes closed or else she could see how red his face was becoming. He responded, “I would love to be your boyfriend.”

Finally her eyes opened and crinkled with happiness, she rested her forehead against his and rubbed the tips of their noses together, transferring that pink. “Then I guess I’m your girlfriend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hermano- brother  
> Mamá- mom (obvs)  
> Tonto- silly/stupid  
> Mijo- cutesy way of saying 'my son' instead of mi hijo  
> Mija- ^^^ but 'my daughter'  
> Buen trabajo, mija!- Good job, my daughter!  
> Qué canción es esto?- What song is it?  
> Suena familiar- It sounds familiar  
> Aye por dios- Saying like 'oh my God'  
> Lo siento- I'm sorry


	7. Talks and Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith has a lot of conversations today

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long, I have no idea what happened. A lot has happened, geeze. But thank you for all of the comments and kudos, it does help me hype up to write this, honestly. It means a lot.
> 
> THIS CHAPTER ENDED UP AT 5,000 WORDS SO I HOPE IT MAKES UP FOR IT BECAUSE IT DID NOT WANT TO END!
> 
> Also, grad school is happening so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to dedicate so the updates will be sporadic.

_”Ji-ji! Stop!”_

_“Payton get out of here!”_

Keith wakes up, startled. He can still hear the roar of the fire and the sharp _shnick shnick_ of blades in his ears. He wasn’t there when it happened but his mind can fill in the blanks. As good of a video as it can be some details are better left unacknowledged, too bad his brain didn’t get that memo. Groaning, he buried his face further into his flattened pillow, ignoring the sun peeking out from under the blinds.

Before he fell back to sleep he flipped his pillow over, something he read on the Internet, to change dreams or something. He wished he didn’t dream at all but he needs more sleep. Mr. Kelly or Coran, his Civilian Life teacher, warned them of a big project starting the beginning of the week. In the class so far he has made a birdhouse, came up with three ways to make mac n’ cheese with only three ingredients, and learned how to indicate North. Who knows what the man has come up with.

He breathed in the scent of the detergent that Scarlet used on his bed sheets. He pushed back the past and thought of something that was _so_ far different and off topic and had absolutely _no_ connection to his parents or childhood. He thought of… flowers. Yes, flowers, pretty colorful flowers that his mom used to carefully press between book pages.

Nope. Okay, change of subject.

He thought of… TV, no, no, no, no screens. Okay, cake? Hunk said he would bring fresh baked cupcakes next week. He still hasn’t answered the other boy’s question on what flavor he’d prefer. He replied he’d be fine with anything but he secretly hoped for chocolate. His mom used to make him this chocolate cake for his birthday that was somehow crunchy but still good.

“Gaaaahhhhh,” he groaned into the pillow. He scrunched his legs under him and stretched his arms out in a cat-like stretch. He pulled down his hoodie from when it slid up his torso. He doesn’t have to worry so much about catching on fire when he’s sleeping, thankfully, but now he’s awake and has to be more cautious.

He sat up on his knees, the sleeves long and in his lap, fingers barely poking out of the fabric. He looked to his alarm clock on his nightstand, 7:47 blinked at him in neon green. He reached over and gingerly swept up the nonchalant envelope where he left it. He swallowed and smoothed his fingers over the crumpled paper. It didn’t become wrinkled because of him or Scarlet; he knew that if it was anything of his she treated it with care. It wasn’t well taken care of when it was delivered to the house. Who knows how the letter inside looked.

He moved his legs to sit crisscross, the cotton of his baggy sweatpants catching under him. He felt strangely cool at the moment. Very calm. Years since he had heard from her and suddenly he gets a letter out of the blue. The flap was securely fastened to the pocket, only the barest corner of the envelope wasn’t glued down. Carefully, Keith picked at the corner. It tore, just a little bit but instead of following the crisp line it was predestined to, the tear arced so only a tiny little flap was loose.

He slipped his thumb in the bigger opening, prepared for the odd tearing and uneven scalloping, when there was a knock on the door. His head flew up, bangs in his eyes, as he covered the envelope with his pillow like it was a bad secret.

He cleared his throat. “Uh, yes?”

Scarlet opened the door just enough to poke her head through. “Keith, you have that meeting with Shiro today remember? Did you forget?”

Eyes widening, Keith ditched the pillow and the letter underneath it and flew to the mound of clothes on his desk chair. “Shit! I forgot!”

“Mmmhmm, that’s what I thought. You’re meeting him at that café in town, call me when you get there and when you’re done!” With that statement she closed the door.

He starts to put on layers of clothes from the pile and saw the letter peeking out from under the pillow. He paused his harried dressing. After a minute or two he slipped it into his new hoodie.

Minutes later he’s down in his extra layers and a non-sleep sweatshirt. He adjusted his undershirts to line up as he shoved his feet into his shoes. He was adjusting the heel when a firm hand grabbed onto his sweatshirt. He looked up to see Scarlet with her brow furrowed and downturned mouth. “Keith, I know you haven’t opened the note from your mother yet but I just wanted to say that no matter what’s inside you don’t have to do anything it says. It doesn’t have to change you, okay?”

_Change me? What—what does that mean?_ He looked at her, puzzled, a little pebble dropped in his stomach. “S-sure, Scar. Whatever you say.”

She smiled at him but the little creases around her eyes were still there. She nodded. “Okay, I just wanted to let you know. You’re your own person, and I think you’re a very brave young man.” She let go of his sleeve.

Kind words but each dropped little pebbles into his stomach, plopping in and churning the stomach acid and making him vaguely sick.

He left and caught the bus that would leave him kitty-corner to the Just Beans Here.

A short ride later he spotted Shiro with his conspicuous white tuft of hair at one of the outside tables, a cup of coffee still steaming.

The older man looked up from his menu as the metal chair scrapped against the concrete. “Hi, Keith. Get here alright?”

Stomach still unsettled but calm despite the rocky bus ride he nodded. “It was fine. Yours?”

“Well enough, not a lot of traffic at this time.”

The waitress came up then. After getting his order of iced tea she let them have a moment or two to decide on what they’d like. As she weaved between the tables Shiro put on his “working smile” as Keith called it. Polite and friendly but slightly distant. In this moment he was not his cousin but a professional liaison for the small part of the government that dealt with kids who had the unfortunate side effect of having a villainous parent or parents.

“Keith, how have things been so far?”

Keith sighed and rolled his eyes. The pretending always annoyed him. That smile annoyed him. The “I’m you’re friend” annoyed him. Because they didn’t. They didn’t care, he was just either another case or something to be monitored. But this caseworker isn’t like the others; this is Shiro. And he knew Shiro cared about him. It took him a while to realize that but that knowledge was cemented in him.

He hated this part of the routine but knew it was necessary. “Everything is fine with Scarlet. I’ve only melted a few things since last month.” He rubbed the envelope in his pocket between his fingers, debating. “Pretty much it.”

The waitress came back with their drinks. Shiro asked for a Cobb salad because he was prepared that way and Keith panicked and asked for a BLT. Conveniently forgetting he didn’t like tomatoes.

Shiro’s brows furrowed. “I thought you didn’t like tomatoes.”

Keith crossed his arms and frowned. “I don’t, I—I just felt like bacon today.”

The guidance counselor didn’t comment, merely nodded his head. “Okay. So,” He folded his hands on the table. “How’s school?”

Keith’s eyes drifted, taking in small details before answering. The couple eating brunch together, giggling and cooing. Someone typing furiously on their laptop with papers strewn about, taking over the table next to them. A girl with a magazine with a blond man on the cover leaning against nothing, the new CEO of some company or a celebrity he doesn’t know. A woman with a darker skin tone than the young woman behind the magazine bustled around the metal fence, waving.

“Keith.”

Said young man snapped his attention back to the person he was meeting. “Sorry,” His eyes darted back to the young woman who was waving back at the older woman. The girl from the elevator? “School’s fine. As you know.”

Shiro broke character for a minute by rolling his eyes. “I do, but I want to know how you feel. Is it working? How’re classes? Do you have friends?”

Keith leaned his arms on the table. “It’s fine. Classes are fine; the teacher’s are weird. Coran is the weirdest, he keeps giving us random assignments for what’s supposedly a Life Skills class. I don’t know how many birdhouses he expects us to make. My bio teacher is going on maternity leave, I think she would still try to work if it wasn’t for her wife; she called during class to make sure she wasn’t working too hard. It was cute. Slav is…interesting. He spends most of the class going through other world scenarios probabilities. Lance doesn’t help because he keeps asking stupid questions during class.”

“What kind of stupid questions?” Shiro asked.

“Stuff like what are the chances of a building falling because of a kid throwing a baseball through the window, or the probability of someone tossing a water bottle a hundred times and having it land perfectly every time.” Keith chuckled. “One time he asked what was the probability of this guy Sean in out class of getting laid and Slav actually answered him.” He covered his mouth with his wrist as he laughed. “Pfft, he said it was less than twenty percent. Maybe thirty in another dimension.”

Shiro chuckled at his story. It was really funny; he didn’t expect the teacher to actually answer! God, best Tuesday ever. Sean Dick didn’t even try to get back at Lance after that, which Keith thought was nothing short of a miracle.

“It sounds like you and Lance are getting along well.”

Keith didn’t answer for a minute or two. “I guess…Sometimes it’s like he barely stands me. But we can handle it for the rest of the year.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t ‘barely stand you’. He’s a nice kid.”

“He’s fine, but I don’t think we could be classified as ‘friends.’” For emphasis he brought his fingers up for the air quotes. He dropped his hands. “Shiro, why can’t I just get a nullifier? Wouldn’t that just be easier?”

Shiro sighed like the world was on his shoulders. “Keith, we’ve discussed this. You won’t learn how to control your powers yourself. What if you lose it? Or what if it breaks? Then where would you be?”

Keith didn’t have an answer for that.

Satisfied his cousin nodded then he smiled as the waitress deposited their food in front of them. Keith merely nodded with what he hoped looked like a smile, when she left he started to pick off his tomatoes and throwing them on top of Shiro’s salad.

Shiro stabbed through the extra tomatoes and greens. “We might be able to get you a nullifier for special occasions, like games or dances. Hopefully you won’t get detention, but everyone’s required for that one, but you have to learn how to do it yourself if you’re still planning to be a civilian.”

Keith flaked off crumbs of crust from his sandwich and bit into his spear pickle. “I highly doubt I’m going to dances,” he mumbled around the bite of food. “And I am still planning to be a civilian. It’s not like I’m planning to turn evil or anything. Why would I change anything in my plan now? Why would I just suddenly turn evil? It’s not like anyone just turns evil over night and I’m not planning to.” He glared at his sandwich; he flicked off a small tomato seed. God, he hated tomatoes.

“Hey, buddy, no one is saying that you’re going to turn evil alright? Is it someone from school? We can talk to them okay?” Shiro set down his fork, looking at him with concern. His non-metal hand was lying on the table, an offer but not an obligation.

“No it’s just…” he looked away. The girl from the elevator was talking excitedly to the woman sitting across from her. The woman was smiling warmly and nodding every so often. “Just because my dad burned down buildings for money people expect me to. Just, the reputation that my parents turned evil makes it _really_ hard to just…blend in. And this,” he took off his glove and held up his hand and allowed a small orange flame flicker to life. “Doesn’t help.” He closed his hand around the small flame, smothering it.

He slipped his other glove off and picked up his food, tomato free. “I’m just having an off day. People are irritating. Let’s just leave it at that.” He took a big bite out of his sandwich and chewed furiously.

“Okay, if you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine.” He resumed eating. Before he took a new bite he asked, “But other than that everything’s fine? You have friends? It seems like you’ve been hanging out with Pidge and Hunk a lot. And of course Lance.”

“Why ask if you already know the question?” Keith quirked an eyebrow at him.

Shiro looked at him, fork paused in midair. Another crack in the professional mask. Keith knew if they weren’t on a ‘business’ lunch he would probably be giving as good as he got. They stared at each other, neither one wanting to give in; Shiro didn’t even blink.

Finally the older man gave in; Keith relished his victory silently. “Just tell me if you’re making friends or not. How about Shay? Are you two getting along?”

“I would say I’m friends with Hunk and Pidge, like school friends, we’re not braiding anyone’s hair or having sleepovers anytime soon. Shay is cool. She’s really cool, like she’s really determined to do her best and improve. I can appreciate that.”

They continue talking about his classes and friends, see how well he’s adjusting in school. All the regular rounds to see if his basic needs are taken care of at Scarlet’s. He doesn’t mention that Scarlet thinks he’s all of a sudden going to turn evil because of getting contact with his mother. Then he would have to discuss his mother and how he felt and why he hadn’t opened the letter yet and he wanted to avoid _that_ inquisition. He’s just out here for his required monthly talk with his cousin.

“Just wait here, you’re going to have to meet someone.” Shiro says as the waitress takes away their dishes. He leaves a few bills on the table for the check and walks over to the table with the girl and woman. The woman smiles warmly as she stood up to hug him. They chat for a bit and Shiro was talking to the girl, then he tilted his head in his direction. The girl nodded and walked over to him. He met Shiro’s gaze and glared at him, who smirked and shrugged in response.

The girl with teal hair pulled into a high ponytail waved as she sat down in front of him, slinging her purse over the back of her chair. “Hi, Keith!”

He gave her a half-smile. “Hi…”

She stuck her hand out. “Plaxum, from the elevator, but you can call me Plax.”

He almost took her hand but remembered why that would be a _very_ bad idea. He quickly put his gloves back on. “Sorry, no handshakes, but, um, that’s an interesting name.”

“Hey, no worries, I forgot.” She picked up the dessert menu. “Yeah, my mom was, and still is, a bit of a hippy.”

“Does it mean anything?”

She set aside the trifold and shook her head. “Nah, not really.”

He nodded.

They sat in silence. It was awkward silence, at least to him. She didn’t seem to mind that much, playing with the menu. They waved the waitress away when she asked if they wanted anything else. He looked over to the other table where Shiro abandoned him. They were talking amicably but it seemed like a serious conversation.

“I’m meeting with Shiro after he’s done. I think they want to introduce you to Mamá Martinez.”

He looked back over, the appearances clicking into place. The same clear bronzed skin, thick chestnut hair, and sharp facial features that are actually quite soft when smiling. Except for the eyes and height they looked remarkably alike, especially if placed side to side.

He turned back to Plax, who was fiddling with the small braids she put into her ponytail; she smiled. “Don’t worry, there’s a reason she’s called Mamá Martinez, she’s really nice.”

“Thanks but why would I meet her? I mean, why is it so important?”

She tilted her head in confusion. “Well, she’s the one that looks after us, checks in, that stuff. She normally does things in person but Shiro’s her intern or something. They might just want you to finally meet her.”

Why would Shiro be her intern? Looks after them? He knew Shiro checked in on him, he thought it was as a representative for children’s services or something. He didn’t think that there was someone else that was supposed to be doing that job. Looking back though things made a _lot_ more sense, still confusing but maybe more sense. But she said _us_ …”What do you mean by ‘us?’”

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Her left arm wrapped around herself as her other came up to cover her mouth. “Oh my God, you don’t know.” Her hand at her mouth dropped to rest on top of the left. Her smile was more subdued. “I forgot that not everyone knows anymore and I kinda thought you already knew.” She met his eyes, brave and a little defiant. “You don’t have her as a teacher but my mother is Luxia. She works at the school and she’s a reformed supervillain.”

He jerked. The table rattled and a glass fell over. He grabbed it right before it fell off the table. “She’s a reformed _supervillain?_ ”

“Yes.”

“And you’re her kid?”

“Also, yes.”

“And she’s working at the school?”

“ _Yes.”_

She stared at him, cerulean eyes daring him to say _anything_ bad about her or her mother. When he didn’t follow up with another question she asked, “Isn’t that why you’re here? You’re parents are supervillains like my mom and…” Her head gestured to the adults behind them. “They’re here to help.”

“I—I mean I guess. I’ve never thought about…It’s just…you’re mom works at _the school?_ ”

Her brow furrowed and her lips tensed just a little bit more, yet her voice remained level. “Yes. At the school. That can happen, y’know.”

“No, no, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you. I just never thought of it before. I never imagined my mom doing… _anything_ outside of prison. I’ve never imagined my mom outside of prison. It just came a shock that _that_ can happen.” He paused and put as much sincerity as he could into what he said. “I’m…really happy that you have this with your mother.” It just occurs to him that the glass was still in his hand. He set it in the middle of the table.

She smiled at him, defenses gone. “Thank you. That means a lot.” She relaxed her posture, arm and elbow resting on the table, fiddling with a braid. “Mamá Martinez could find a job for your mom or dad when or if they get out. She helped with my mom.”

He stared hard at his unused napkin. He took it and folded one corner of the square to the opposite corner. Keeping his hands and eyes busy. “My dad’s dead, it wasn’t released to the public, but he is. And I have no idea when or if my mom is ever getting out.” He thinks about the slight crinkling that’s in his hoodie pocket.

“They didn’t tell you the sentencing?”

He shrugged, folding the edges to meet in the middle. “I didn’t want to know at the time, still kinda don’t.” He finished folding and pulled on the wings to pop up the crane.

Plaxum nodded and thankfully didn’t say anything else. She took the paper-napkin-turned-crane. “That’s cool.” He didn’t know if she was talking about the bird or what he said. She tried to flap the wings but they barely moved. “Isn’t this supposed to flap?”

One side of his lips hitched up. “It’s a traditional crane. They’re not supposed to flap.”

“Hmm, still cool. Can I keep this?”

“Be my guest.”

She carefully folded the crane flat and slid it into her tiny purse. “If you want you can come talk to my mom. She’s typically free after school. And if you need a friend who gets the super villain kid thing you can always come talk to me.”

Keith hopes he kept the wince off his face. “Thanks for the offer but I’m not sure…”

She held up her hands, stopping whatever his excuse would be. “It’s just an offer, but we can still hang if you want.” She twisted her torso until he could hear a series of cracks from the other side of the table. “I think they’re ready to switch off anyway. I’m going to make Shiro get me ice cream for making my partner Flora.” Her face scrunched up in a glare. “Not funny, Shiro, not funny.” He has no idea who Flora is or why it’s bad that Shiro made them her partner and he won’t ask. He looked over her shoulder to see his cousin giving the woman a smile and a hug. Plaxum turned back around. “It was nice to see you Keith, you should seriously think about what I said.” She got up, slung the chain of her purse over her shoulder and looked over said shoulder, teeth gleaming. “See you in school Keith!”

He waves goodbye as she hugs Mrs. Martinez and makes a little hop over to Shiro. After a lot of gesturing and looks of disapproval from Plaxum Keith can see the exact time Shiro gave in. The man looked back at Keith and called out, “See you Monday, Keith! Behave yourself for Mrs. Martinez all right?”

If he could physically roll his eyes out of his head he would. “Good _bye_ , Shiro.”

Mrs. Martinez chuckled as she sat down where Plaxum left the chair out. “He’s a character that one. Hello, Keith,” She smiled at him, kind brown eyes that seemed very warm. She either did a great job at balancing the caring and professional relationship to the point one couldn’t tell or she just did a shit job of it. The aura she gave off was very…maternal. “I’m Isabella Martinez, you can call me Isabella, Bella, Mrs. Martinez, and some call me Mamá Martinez. Whatever makes you feel comfortable.”

He nodded. “Thank you, I think I’ll stick with Mrs. Martinez.”

She smiled at him, her phone buzzed and she shot off a quick text before focusing her attention on him again. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions but long story short: I’m a senior caseworker for the Administration for Children and Families that specializes with supervillains and their children. I’m technically your case manager until you turn eighteen. To make sure you’re getting proper education and that where you live is safe, etcetera etcetera. So far you’ve been dealing with Shiro, your cousin correct?” He nodded. “Now, _I_ normally would be doing it and we’re bending the rules of ethics here by allowing Shiro to be working with you on your case but it’s an exception due to past performance with previous social workers.”

His memories bring up fake friendly adults with too big smiles and too bright voices that wouldn’t even meet his eye. He was so angry and frustrated back then he refused to even try to work with them. For a while he didn’t even speak, which certainly didn’t help when he kept getting kicked out of foster homes for setting shit on fire. He’s not gonna lie and say he _didn’t_ get some satisfaction of being a little shit to them, but he hoped he matured a little since then.

She gave him a look that tells him that she knows _exactly_ what he’s thinking, but the little smile showed that she wasn’t particularly angry. “Do you have any questions, Keith?”

“Why is Shiro on my case? He’s not even a social worker.”

“Well, it’s complicated. About a little over a year ago I contacted him when he was working as Altea’s guidance counselor for a couple of months asking if there was any information about you that could help. He offered to house you and while that would’ve been ideal he was fresh out of graduate school, it was years since you’ve last seen him, and his housing wasn’t exactly fireproof. It didn’t seem like the best situation when I already had Scarlet in mind.

“But he wanted to help and now he’s helping me part-time and the school’s liaison. Working with him and Allura has honestly been a godsend. His only cases are you and Plaxum, but it’s more so school focused. Other than you he’s not doing more than what his guidance counseling requires.”

Keith nodded. “Okay, that makes sense. But why are you meeting with me now?”

She smiled at him. A very genuine smile that was very fond but somehow seemed a little sad. “Well, it’s been a couple of years but we have met before. You were still so closed off I’m not surprised you don’t remember, but I heard from Shiro that you’re doing better so I thought this might be a good time.” Her phone buzzed and she quickly texted back, she shook her head fondly, still texting. “I’m sorry, it’s just my youngest son. He’s just being ridiculous.” She put away her phone. “Okay, so Shiro told me that you have some concerns over your control? It looks like you have plenty of control right now, nothing’s on fire and you had that flame under control from before.”

He frowned a little bit, so she was keeping tabs on him. He flexed his fingers. It’s true, he was pretty under control right now but he could still feel the heat swimming just under his skin. “I’m pretty calm right now. And that flame was really small.”

“Well, from previous reports it seemed that even that is an improvement from when you were younger.”

His brow furrowed. “I suppose.”

She held up her hand in a placating gesture, silver bracelets jingling. “I apologize, I just meant is that you do have control. Don’t discredit the work that you made to get here. Isn’t there someone at school that can help you with controlling your powers?”

That’s something that never occurred to him before. He supposed that he did do a lot of work to make sure that he has more control than he did before. He watched as the heat from his hands melt the leftover ice cubes in the glass that didn’t fall. His gloves weren’t smoking but acting like a furnace in eighty-degree weather wasn’t his goal. He set his hands in his lap. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, there’s no harm in asking. The sooner you find a tutor the sooner you learn and the sooner you won’t have to worry about your powers.” She might have a point but he’s been fine up until that point. Like she said he’s made improvements, he’s sure that he can make more. _But how long would that take?_ That annoying voice of Shiro’s slithered its way into his thoughts again. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask, alright? I believe under certain circumstances I can use some connections to get a portable nullifier.” She checked her watch and made her way to stand. “I’m sorry, Keith, but I have to go. If you need anything just ask okay? Shiro has my number if you need it.”

He stood up too, stuffing his hands into his hoodie pocket. The smooth texture of the envelope met his fingers. “Okay, I’ll tell Shiro if I need anything, and I might take you up on the offer for a nullifier.”

She shook a finger at him. “That nullifier is just in special circumstances. Like in crowded contained areas.” Her phone buzzed again continuously. “I’m sorry, it must be my son. I hope to hear from you soon, Keith!”

She rushed off speaking rapidly in Spanish. He didn’t catch much other than a brief squawk of, “Cora did _what?!_ ” followed by even more frantic Spanish as she started to jog to her car.

He snorted softly, pulling out two dollars out of his wallet for the tip. Instead of returning it to his pants pocket he clutched it in his hand in his hoodie. The pointy corners of the unopened letter jabbed at his palms. He scowled. He wasn’t evil and he wasn’t going to turn evil either. No matter what others think. Plaxum’s mother might be the exception but he’s not even going to go there.

His fingers rip off the flap on the crease, a neat, straight as an arrow line. He tosses the flap in the small trash on the bus. Foregoing a seat he wraps a hand around a yellow pole and waits out the bumpy ride. His other hand in his pocket slowly tore the rest of the envelope on the crease until he could slip out of the letter. He briefly thought that maybe he should wait until he’s around a source of water.

_No matter what’s inside you don’t have to do anything it says. It doesn’t have to change you, okay?_

Keith’s mouth pinched at the implication. Steeling his determination he took out the letter and let it unfold on its own. Emotions shoved to that dusty box in the back of his mind he started reading the familiar handwriting.

_There’s nothing to change._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm trying to make it realistic as I can to the actual process but obviously it's not. I'm pretty sure the wouldn't allow a family member work with another in that way because that can be a breach in ethics. But honestly, it's just...fuck it. fuck it all, man.
> 
> If anyone has any questions feel free to ask! I have a tumblr but I'm not sure if anyone would be that interested or anything, *shrugs* if you are just let me know.


	8. Underwear and Jellyfish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's an underwear thief and it's the return of the jellyfish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yoooooo, sooooo, this is out like really quite late. I understand, I apologize but for now on the updates will be very sporadic because since the last chapter I moved across state and am now in grad school that starts like NEXT FUCKING WEEK. So I will do this when I have time, I SWEAR I WILL FINISH, but I hope you guys stick with me till then ^-^
> 
> Thank you guys for all of your reviews they really help a lot.

Lance ran down the steps full speed, he hooked his hand around the frame of the wall and used his momentum to swing himself into the kitchen. He bypassed his mom pouring coffee and the freshly popped eggo waffles to launch himself at a certain sister who was seconds ahead of him. Said sister screeched and fled while the other watched amusedly from the sidelines eating her toaster waffles, syrup smeared on her cheeks.

Clara squealed with laughter as Lance chased her around the island in the kitchen.

“Get back here you!” Lance shouted.

Isabella watched as her youngest son chased her youngest daughter blankly. Eyes tracking back and forth as she debated whether to step in. She rubbed her forehead and took a sip of her coffee before putting it down and setting the waffles on a plate. “Lance, stop chasing your sister.”

“Ma!” he called as he passed her. “You don’t know what she did! I woke up to her dumping my underwear out the window!”

That made her pause. She stepped out of the way of her running children to poke her head out to look outside. Hung on the tree and scattered on the green-yellow lawn was her son’s boxers. “So she did.” She took another gulp of caffeine. She could see in the not-so-distance, in the direction of the school, some sort of golem creature swatting at someone who brought rocks from the ground before throwing them seemingly mentally.

Her nonchalance froze Lance on the spot. “Mamá!” His lack of movement was ignored by Clara who kept running, eyes closed in mirth, before running headlong into the back of his knees, which sent them toppling. Clara was on her stomach wedged under Lance who was awkwardly sitting on her, trapping her between one calf and his butt.

“HA!”

A literal boom of laughter echoed, making Lance lose whatever balance he had left and fully sitting on his sister with his leg bent under him. Clara squeaked with the extra weight and Melody had a hand clapped over her mouth with her eyes wide, barely breathing. Isabella righted her self after a small stumble but she couldn’t say so for the rest of her coffee, which thankfully was only on the floor and not her blouse. She grabbed a handful of paper towels and let it sop up the mess while she stuck her head out the door again, followed closely by her son.

Off the side of the road but not quite on the sidewalk was a boy a little older than Lance, groaning. She cupped her hand around her mouth and shouted, “Are you okay?”

Lance popped his head around her and instantly recognized the guy that ruined their morning. Cupping his hands in a similar manner as his mother he shouted, “What the he-heckie…R _-Rax_! We’re trying to eat breakfast!”

Clara shoved herself between their legs and shouted with all her might, “What the hell!”

Isabella immediately glared at her son, mouth in a tight line and eye twitching.

Lance’s eyes widened with shock before softening into a ‘trust me, I haven’t been swearing’ face. “I did _not_ teach her that.”

She continued to stare at her son. “I _swear_ I—“ His eyes darted between hers and the fallen classmate. “H-hey! Rax, aren’t you supposed to be practicing at _school?_ Where it’s _safe?_ ”

Rax got up and brushed himself off, dark skin glinting in perspiration. He didn’t respond to him with anything but a glare.

Lance studiously ignored his mother’s gaze as well as the weight of his little sister on his leg, who he was sure making faces. “Come on, man! You could’ve crushed my little sisters or my beautiful, smart, wonderful mother!”

“…Nice underwear, McClain,” he said before his hands became enveloped in a blue glow and he grew a crystal. When the Balmarean crystal was large enough he hopped on the back, hands still glowing, and took off towards Shay who was making slow progress in her crystal form. She waved before turning around and following.

He squeaked as he remembered his underwear flowing in the breeze. His mother sighed next to him. “Go get your underwear. I’ll talk to Clara about not throwing underwear out the window later but take her with you to help clean it up. _And_ I want to talk to _you_ —“ she poked him in the chest— “when you get back inside.”

Before they left, she held onto Clara. “Clara, I know you like pulling pranks but this is very inconsiderate to your brother. He needs to wear underwear. It's also inconsiderate to our neighbors, who do not need to see or want to see his underwear, or me. I’ll have to clean it later because it’s dirty. If you want to pull pranks do it so it doesn’t hurt anyone and you have to think about the consequences. Now go help your brother clean up, and later you’re helping me with the laundry.”

Clara pouted and placed her hands on her hips the same way her brother does when he’s being stubborn. “It’s a sibling thing! We have to! If I didn’t I would be a bad sister!”

“I’m sure you’re a good sister whether you pull pranks or not, but this is what’s going to happen when you do. You have to clean up your mess.” Isabella turned her around and gave her a slight shove towards Lance, who was waiting for her. “Now I don’t want you to come back in unless you have his underwear and put it in the laundry.”

The little girl groaned but sprinted and leapt at the underwear hanging precariously on the lowest branch, hand brushing the cat printed cloth. Lance braced his hands on her wait and hoisted her up while she reached for the underwear.

Nodding to herself, Isabella turned to her other child, ready to help her get ready for school. She started to ask if she finished with her breakfast but the emotion on that little face stopped her short.

Melody was worrying her lower lip until it was red and indented from her teeth. Her fingers tangled in front of her, a nervous habit picked up from her older sister who moved out, and eyes casted aside to the floor. Her eyes were wide but her pupils were dilated in what seemed to be fear. Her soaked waffles were soggy due to the excess amount of maple syrup and ignored in favor of staring at the floor.

Isabella stroked her hand over the silk of her daughter’s hair, startling the girl who looked up at her so quickly she must have got whiplash. If she did she didn’t show it. Her brow furrowed and she bit her lip again. “Hey, _chula_ , are you okay?” She waited for a reply she knew wouldn’t come. Melody didn’t say anything but only looked back to her breakfast and started picking at the soggy waffles. “ _Oi, por favor habla conmigo._ ”

The young girl didn’t say anything, only shook her head. Isabella looked over to where Melody was looking before and frowned. Right between the sink counter and the island. She looked back over at her daughter. “Are you upset because Lance and Clara fell?” Melody started to shake her head no but her face scrunched up even more and she nodded before shoving a bite of food in her mouth. Isabella stayed quite as she chewed, hoping for a clearer answer, but Melody only continued eating, her expression smoothing. Isabella continued to stroke her hair from when she briefly stalled, mulling over the next few words.

“Well… for one, they weren’t hurt. Even if it scared them a tiny bit they were fine. I understand if you were scared for your siblings but it _was_ an accident. The boy didn’t mean it, he’s practicing to control his powers, like Lance.” Isabella frowned. She had no clue whether or not what she was saying was helping Melody but she didn’t know what else to say. She had an idea what the issue was but she didn’t know how else to phrase the words without more information.

Melody nodded, and continued to eat her breakfast.

The screen door clanged against the wall when Lance kicked it open, arms holding a small pile of boxers while a bigger pile bogged down Clara. “See Ma! I’m cleaning!” Clara declared as she wobbled into the laundry room. Lance laughed as he followed his sister. He swerved to make a small detour to peck his mother on the cheek and his other sister on the top of her head. He flashed them a quick smile as he moved to dump his armload into the laundry room.

She shook her head at her family as she turned back to her daughter who was more relaxed than what her talk did. She tilted her head down, making eye contact with her daughter. “Better?”

She nodded, small smile on her face. She pecked her on the nose. “Good.”

Lance came strolling into the room, Clara at his side, strides similar, if a bit disproportionate. “We have delivered the undies!” they chimed together.

Ah, her children.

“Okay, go finish breakfast. Lance,” she beckoned him with a wave of her hand. “a word.”

She got up to go to the hallway with the chorus of “ooohhh” from her youngest as Lance followed.

“Ma, I’m just saying that she totally was going to deserve it. You just don’t go throw out a man’s underwear out of the window! And what she did on Saturday! She had it coming!”

She cocked her hip, fists placed on her hips with attitude. “You’re the older brother, Lance, you have to set an example. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about.

“You’ve improved so much since you were little. You’ve strengthened your powers _so_ much and you have excellent control.”

“Mamá, where is this going?”

“Have you considered tutoring other kids at school?”

His brow furrowed over his dark blue eyes. “Is this about one of your cases? I thought I wasn’t supposed to know who they were?”

She was silent for a minute or two before clucking her tongue at him and cupping his face. Squeezing his cheeks until his lips puckered up in an unintentional duck face, she said, “I am just saying my wonderful, hard working, and generous boy should keep an open mind if anyone needs help.”

He stared at her before sighing with his whole body, “Yes, Ma.”

 

* * *

 

 

Lance hopped off of the early bus and went straight to Nyma’s locker. He leaned next to the locker next to hers and waited for her to shut the door to surprise her. When the locker slammed shut he leaned his head against the cold metal with an award-winning smile and a fingergun. “Excuse me, beautiful, but do we have chemistry?”

She tilted her head at him with a flirtatious smile. A couple of swinging steps forward she was leaning towards him, arms wrapped around her books, head tilted until her nose barely brushed his. “Well I certainly feel like I’m having a reaction, how about you?”

He slid his hand into her dyed blonde hair and tilted his face up toward hers. “Mmm, I suppose I am.” She giggled as their lips met.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and felt her hand hook into his belt loop. He drew her close, smiling into the kiss. He parted with dopey smile on his face. “Hey, how about after school we could go to your—“

“No!” A couple of books fell from her arms, a textbook nailing him on the foot. She dropped and gathered her books at lightening speed, muttering sorry as she did. Popping back up, worrying her bright pink lip she said, “No, no, sorry,” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Not right now, my house is being fumigated right now so…”

His brows furrowed in concern. “Then where are you staying?”

She pouted. “I’m staying at Rolo’s for right now, sorry babe. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to worry. And it’s not like that with Rolo, we’re strictly friends.” She emphasized that last point with a firm slice through the air with her hand.

His smile was weak and his stomach felt like someone decided to play cat’s cradle with his intestines. He nodded, a bit too forcefully. “Yeah, sure, cool, coolcoolcoolcool, I didn’t think about that before and now I am so heeeyyy.” He took a deep breath and exhaled, shaking his head a bit he smiled at her. “Yeah, it’s not a problem, I trust you.” He darted in with a sweet kiss to the lips.

She leaned into him and captured his mouth again, melting into him with a sigh. Again, he brought his hand to her waist, settling it on the small of her back reeling her—

“Really? Right here? In front of my salad?”

Lance separated from his girlfriend to level a _look_ at the gremlin beside him. “Just because your sexuality is robots doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy kissing my _girlfriend_.”

“Yes, yes, I know your _girlfriend._ I got the group text. But I’m just saying A.I.’s can be incredibly advanced and we’re _really_ close of having them like humans.”

Lance spun away from them, locker rattling when he threw himself against it, fingers in his ears. “Nope, nope, nope, nope we are not doing the movie _Her_ nope! Nu-uh, not today.”

Pidge scooted up to him squeezing between Nyma and him, poking him in the side. “Hey, I’m just saying that being in a lesbian relationship with an A.I. would be the best relationship I would have. All the relationship stuff without the human stuff.”

Slowly, he turned his head from when he was trying to ram it into the locker. Looking into their smirking face he gently placed his fingertips over their mouth. “Pidgeon, I want you to shut up.” He shook his head, eyes wide and glaring. “You will not speak of this again.” They hiked up a side of their mouth higher, in a look that says ‘you’re not the boss of me’. A look he’s well acquainted with through his sister. They go to open their mouth but he clamps it shut with the hand still on their mouth. “Bah, bah, bap, nope. You will not say anything that has to deal with dating artificial life, agreed?”

Rolling their eyes they nodded. With that agreement he released their big mouth. They stared at him for a minute staring him down. Daring him. He stared back not daring to break eye contact. He lifted an eyebrow as a power move, he felt Nyma wrap her arms around him in support, her chin on his shoulder.

A hand waved between the competitors, breaking the contest. “Uh, hey, guys having a staring contest?” He glared at Nyma hanging over Lance like a jacket. “I’m pretty sure you don’t need to be hanging on him like that for a staring contest _Nyma._ ”

She pouted and nuzzled into Lance’s neck, kissing his cheek, lipstick not even smearing. “He likes me here.”

“Hunk,” Lance sighed, “Come on, man.”

Hunk pouted and rolled his eyes. “Fine.” He went over and picked Pidge up, they didn’t even move from their position. Still making eye contact from a slightly higher vantage point. Nyma scoffed and bent her knees a tad and the next thing Lance knew his feet didn’t touch the linoleum. Even he knew he had such a stupid face on but he couldn’t help it! Forgive him if he found it hot that his girlfriend could lift him.

Before too long though the sound of soft footsteps of one Keith Kogane stopped in front of the spectacle. Lance barely saw him from his peripheral, mullet and all, but he didn’t dare let the midget win just because he was distracted.

His eyes were burning as he stared into the unblinking eyes of the infernal pygmy owl in front of him, who didn’t seem to have any issues staring at him like it was a day at the beach. He had the momentary thought of his eyes getting stuck like this and going blind like his Mamá said but he brushed it away.

“…. What the fuck is happening here?”

“Eye staring contest, duh. Keep up, Kogane.” Lance retorted. “Ack!” His body jerked and he lost eye contact, more in surprise than pain, when Keith jabbed his soft side with his pointy devil fingers. Nyma dropped him from his sudden spasm. Feet on the ground Lance glared up at Keith who's eye bags morphed from bored amusement to horror.

“Shit! Fuck! Sorry, I didn’t mean— _fuck_ —“

Lance stepped into Keith’s space, arms spread. “Oh! It’s on now, buddy boy. I was going easy on you before but _now_.”

Keith dropped his expression, going blank before adopted a mix between disgust and exasperation. He stood his ground against the boy moving into his personal space. “Oh you’re so full of shit, Lance.”

“Yeah?! Well…you’re full of…worse than shit!”

A small round of applause behind him, courteous of his all-time best friend. “Came out strong, Lance!”

“Thanks, buddy,” Lance answered, not looking away from the pyromaniac in front of him. Keith never looked _that_ great on a good day but today must’ve been particularly rough morning because those eye bags on that pasty white skin would have been charged double on a flight to emo-ville. And he was just getting worse as the week went on. Honestly, if he ever comes clean, Keith somehow doesn’t kill him, he would be kind enough to actually instruct him on proper skincare.

A warm hand squeezed his shoulder and a pair of soft lips kissed his cheek. “I gotta go to class. See you later, _boyfriend._ ”

“Ye-yeah, bye _girlfriend_.” He could feel the stupid smile on his face as he continued to wave to her. She turned around, giggled, before giving another wave. Barely, aware that he’s still waving he sighed, still gazing stupidly in her direction.

He could feel Keith’s disbelieving stare but he was too much on a girlfriend high to be bothered. “ _You’re_ dating _her?_ ”

The high was nice while it lasted.

“What is _that_ supposed to mean, Mullet? We’ve been dating since Saturday!”

“Woooww, a whole four days, must be a record. Isn’t she a little out of your league?” he said, raising a sardonic eyebrow.

“Oh! Hey! Keith! I didn’t realize that I didn’t have your number!” Hunk shouted, physically stepping between his two friends and shoving his phone in Keith’s face.

Lance glared at the back of his friend, fully aware of what he was doing. He stepped forward but Pidge dragging him back by a point in the middle of his jacket brought him up short. He looked down to see them raising their eyebrow before swatting him in the stomach. Walking up to Keith he held their phone out, typing in the response he was giving to Hunk.

“Could you repeat that?” they asked bringing out a second phone, tossing the one they previously had at Lance.

He fumbled a bit before it landed nice and safe in the cradle of his palms. “Hey! When did you get my phone you gremlin?!”

They shot him a sly smile and gave him a single jazz hand, still typing with the other, numbers matching up perfect. Okay, so maybe they _are_ a robot. “I have my ways.”

He rolled his eyes and tapped on his screen. “Fudge!” He surged forward and grabbed Hunk from where he was talking to Keith. “Dudes, we need to get to class asap. Come on, Keith! Bye, Pidgeot!”

The gremlin waved as the rest of the group fled down the hall.

Keith ran a little ahead of him, arms pumping, backpack thudding against his spine. “I swear to God if I have to make another fucking birdhouse…”

At this point Lance let go of Hunk who was right on his heels. “Then run faster, Mullet!”

“Uh, guys? Maybe we should… just focus on getting to… class? That sounds like a good idea.” Hunk panted between breaths.

Lance spun around and jogged backwards. “Don’t worry, Hunk! We’ll be there i—“

“Lance!”

“Augh!”

Lance flopped onto his stomach and pushed up from the ground. Hunk fidgeted behind him, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Keith just ahead of them, poised to run but slightly turned back to see what kind of idiocy that Lance did.

“Oh my God, I am _so_ sorry, ma’am. I didn’t see you,” He extended his hand to the woman on the floor. “I’m _so, so, so_ sorry.”

She grasped his hand and used her other to push herself off the floor. Standing, she pushed back the curtain of platinum hair obscuring her face. Smiling at him she waved away his apologies, hazel eyes sparkling. “Don’t worry, I was young once, get to class. I’ll see you boys in biology.”

When the bell chimed over their heads they nodded and sprinted toward their class, Keith a good few feet in front of them before making a sharp left turn and disappearing into the classroom.

“Bro,” Lance huffed, “our new biology teacher is hot.”

“Bro,” Hunk groaned, accidentally stepping on the back of Lance’s shoe, tripping them both up. “She said, ‘I was young once’ she’s gotta be old!”

Lance stomped his foot into his shoe while running. Step, STOMP, step, STOMP. “Well she has really good genes then! And beauty does not stop with age, Hunk!” The bell stopped just as they jumped through the threshold.

“Well—“

“Cutting it a little close today, my boys.” Coran said, mustache twitching. He threw up on hand. “Ah, well, I guess I have volunteers for handing out the papers for the semester project!”

With a grin he handed them each a stack of packets. He leapt behind his desk to rummage about while the boys handed out the assignments. Each taking half of a classroom, in the front desk of the first row was Keith, who was smirking at him. Lance glared in return, handing him the packet before moving on. Despite his speed he still heard the whispered, “I won,” from Keith.

He turned back around and loud-whispered back, “It wasn’t a race!”

With a smug look Keith just raised his eyebrows at him and mouthed, “still won,” and stuck out his tongue.

Lance reciprocated the gesture and handed back the rest of the papers. Taking one for himself he sat next to the empty seat next to Keith.

It was moments like these that made him think that he and Keith would actually get along. When Keith’s actually relaxed and he himself actually makes an effort of not being _totally_ annoying to the fire starter. Sometimes he forgets that there is this giant, gaping cavern between them. Once Keith remembers then he’s probably going to hate him. So it’s best to keep that cavern where it is.

On the front page of their quarter-inch thick packets was a picture of a little house with BASIC SKILLS bolded at the top. Lance snickered when he heard Keith mutter something about birdhouses. Coran did love his birdhouses. He kept a few favorites dangling outside the window; despite the fact they were too high for the birds that are _supposed_ to fit in there. He’s not too proud to brag that his bird _mansion_ is among the favored few.

The teacher clapped calling their attention. “Attention students! We have some exciting new today. Today we will explore the future!”

Hunk raised his hand, without waiting to be called on he continued, “Does this mean it’s true that the school has a time machine in the basement?! Do we all go or do we have to go in shifts? What if we irrevocably change time? Oh, man, I can’t wait to tell Pidge!”

“No!” Coran shouted, he at eased from his stiff position before continuing in a calmer tone. “No. We do not have a time machine. You are simply going to build your lives from the ground up. You’re going to do taxes, choosing your education, which schools, degrees, careers, spouses, children, wills and funerals, the whole shebang!” He spread his hands in a small explosion of excitement, eyes crinkling at the corners.

“Ah, yes, in the back.”

The student dropped their hand and adjusted their glasses. “Mr. Smythe, what about the students who are planning to be superheroes?”

“Oooh?” He raised a bushy orange eyebrow. “You don’t think that this is applicable to superheroes? Well, what league, or organization will you go through if you will? How will you be paid? Will you go through commercials, ads, or just by donations? What name will you go by? Will you be a public super or will you want a civilian identity? And what will that civilian identity be? What would they do? There are only so many freelance writers in one neighborhood before it can be suspicious you know.”

The kid in the back had no response.

Coran chuckled, “That’s what I thought.” He clapped. “As extra fun, those who wish to have offspring will pair up, or not it’s your choice, to map out _their_ future. And to take care of _this_ bundle of joy!” He held up a stiff bald doll by its leg. “But be quick, we only have a few of these little buggers. The rest of the period is to work on your packets, have fun!”

Lance immediately looked over at Keith to find that he was staring intently at the child portion of the packet. He cleared his throat until Keith looked up at him, not irritated but…looking. “So…you want kids?”

His brow furrowed. “I never really thought about it.”

“Well, I for one want kids.”

“Yeah? And? You don’t need me for that dude.”

“Well you are my partner and,” He flipped through to the children section. “There’s an entire section here on adopting.” He looked at Keith expectantly, the other boy’s face scrunched up in either displeasure or confusion. He held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Just think it over, I’d rather not raise Camilla and Tomás and Genevieve by myself. I’d rather not tell them that their father abandoned them.”

It took a hot second for Lance to register what the fuck he just said. “I did _not_ mean it that way I _swear_. Fuck! I’m so stupid, I’m so sorry.” He barely noticed when his phone buzzed.

Keith’s eyes were wide at the onslaught of apologies. “Lance, it’s fine. I’ve gotten over the issues with my dad a long time ago.”

“Still, dude, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.”

Keith shook his head and went back to his packet. “Yeah, it’s fine. You’re an idiot, I expect as much.”

Lance’s expression flat-lined but the tension in his shoulders eased and his stomach went from a churning ocean to more of a rippling puddle. “And here I am apologizing. Rude.”

Keith didn’t deign that comment worthy of a response except for a roll of his eyes. Lance pouted and returned to his packet, paging through the education and career section. His stomach still churning a bit from before. Bringing up his father who abandoned him? Yeah, smooth move, McClain. Not to mention his mom… But he didn’t seem to connect this with _that_. _Thank God._

Granted, from his reaction…it might not be that bad? From the past couple of weeks he is not that bad from when he remembered. _Obviously_. They’ve grown; he’s grown. He hoped anyway. And he was pretty mellow from when Lance ate his own foot. But just because he hadn’t melted him yet doesn’t mean that means he’s going to forgive him. Or that they’d be friends.

Lance tapped his pen on the stack of papers, pouting.

He sighed and put down Voltron Alliance in the superhero affiliation spot.

 

* * *

 

“We have _done_ this, no! We’re not putting a squid on my head again!”

“Aw, come on, Lance! The squid was really close!”

Lance glared at the girl with a yellow jellyfish on her head. “Sedna, the jellyfish don’t work. Luxia could still mind swish me.” He took out his phone to check on his messages. Luxia wouldn’t care. He winced when he read the text from his mother.

_Remember, Lance, you are an example to your siblings._

His mind ticked back to when he swore and hoped her omnipresent mom powers didn’t pick up on that. Or that she had him bugged.

She rolled her eyes through the translucency of the jellyfish but, thankfully, took it off, dark hair slicked and gooey. “I’ve told you to call me Swirn,” she muttered.

Lance looked at Plaxum for help, she just smiled at him and patted Swirn on the head, ignoring the goo. “Swirn, we’ve used this, I know you and Buford like them but maybe we should try something else.”

“If he was here he would agree with me! The antidote was found in the Baku Pufferfish, the secret to the prevention of mental attacks could be in sea life.” Swirn reasoned.

Lance leaned forward, arms on his knees. “Just because it was found in sea life doesn’t mean it will be found in _this_ particular sea life. It might be in a squid or something. We’ll have to keep trying.”

Just then a steady beeping grew closer indicating the arrival of their faculty advisor. A stately woman came through the door, preoccupied with the files in her hand. Not a wrinkle on her pantsuit but fashionable with the organic pattern that was only offset by the blinking red ankle monitor. Buttercup yellow hair was streaked with the same turquoise that her daughter’s hair was.

“Hi, Mom.” Plax chirruped.

“Luxia! Could we get some more samples from those pufferfish?”

She nodded, not even looking up from the papers. “Hi, sweetheart. Lance, I’ll ask at the faculty meeting, but yes, I think we should put the jellyfish to rest.”

Swirn merely scoffed and looked at the jellyfish in her hands lifting up to eye height. “Don’t worry, Squishy, you’re special and you’ll be useful for something. I know it,” she said sagely, and then promptly threw it into the pool.

Lance looked at as Squishy shuddered at the contact with water then rejoined its brethren, glowing a slight pale yellow. He watched as the jellyfish glowed in their different colors, circling around each other. They never sting and whatever venom they have in their tentacles it wasn’t deadly. For the most part harmless and pretty.

He got up, droplets of non-chlorinated water following his footsteps. He took a towel and dried off his feet before putting his socks and shoes again. “Welp, it’s almost the end of free period. Imma go to my locker for my next class. See ya!”

He left the pool area with a chorus of goodbyes. He jogged to make the closing doors of the elevator. “Hey! Hold the doors!”

A black boot stopped the doors from closing, the doors automatically retreating.

“Hey, thanks man—Oh, hey, Keith.”

His face was flushed and his powers were drying his hair leaving the stale scent of sweat. Lance wrinkled his nose at the smell. It wasn’t necessarily _bad_ but…it was sweat. Ignoring the smell of BO he pressed the second floor button.

For whatever reason the mood felt too…awkward or calm for him to start aggravating the other boy. Instead he shifted from foot to foot and stared at the numbers at the top of the elevator decreasing from B6.

As odd as the atmosphere the silence still settled on him like an old itchy woolen sweater. Uncomfortable, twitchy, and he was constantly shifting to somehow make it feel better. He cleared his throat, deciding to discard the wool sweater. “So, how was free period?”

Keith looked at him from the corner of his eye, hands stuffed deep into his pockets, brow furrowed just a little bit. “…Fine. Everything is set up for next period.”

Lance’s head bobbed, “Okay, cool, cool.” They lapsed into silence again. The next numbers were slow to come, stuttering a bit before it finally rolled up. His lip jutted out, eyes squinting as the elevator’s numbers continued at a sluggish pace.

“…So how was your free period?”

Lance looked at him in surprise. “…Good, good, uh. Luxia finally put the end to the jellyfish.”

“Luxia?”

“Yeah, she’s my faculty advisor for my work tuition. She actually happens to be a reformed villain.”

Keith nods. “I heard that actually.”

The lights flickered as the numbers slowed again. This time the numbers stopped moving all together, a blank space with half numbers on either side. Then the lights go out.

Keith groans and goes up to kick the door, not too hard, just enough to make a point. “Stupid door. This is the third time it’s done this to me.”

“Really? It never happened to me.” Lanced felt his way through the dark, accidentally brushing against warm skin and soft hair, which flinched away until he heard a dull thump. “Sorry, dude,” Lance ignored the reaction until his hands were on the panel. “Isn’t there supposed to be an emergency button or call button in here.”

The heat that naturally radiates from Keith warmed up his side. “There is, but it never works. Or no one’s there to monitor it. We can only wait it out.”

Just then Allura’s voice echoed through the tiny chamber. “Attention students. There has been a slight mishap in the mechanics labs. We shall be out of power for the time being. Thank you for your patience.”

Lance slammed the meaty part of his fist against the door. “Goddamnit Allura!” He crossed his arms, slammed his back to the metal wall, and slid down. “I bet it was her stupid mice.”

A rustle of clothes and a sense of movement, Keith must have sat down too. “Her mice?”

“Basically her spies. She has a telepathic communication with them.”

“I thought her powers were energy manipulation?”

Lance rolled his eyes even though Keith couldn’t see him. “You know how it’s really rare for people to have two powers? Well Allura has three.”

“What?! How do you know?”

A smirk crept across his face and he snorted. “Would you believe we used to date?”

…

A long, loud, guffaw was his answer.

This was the loudest and longest time he’s _ever_ heard Keith laugh. He was lucky to get a chuckle out of the man with his best material. And here he is laughing at his expense, the evidence echoing around him in the small space.

…It was really nice. He has a nice laugh.

Mentally he shrugged. If laughing at him is what would make him laugh like this he guesses he just has to update him material. He would do this with anyone really though. Like, he uses science jokes with Pidge and puns with Hunk. That’s Lance. A humble servant to humor and the populace. Yup.

When he finally quieted there was another rustle and a sniff. “How-how do you _really_ know?”

Lance pouted and wrapped his arms around his knees. Lowering even further he buried the bottom half of his face in his cocoon. He sighed. “Okay, fine, she was friend’s with my older sister and she used to babysit me. Happy?”

“That makes _so_ much more sense.”

Lance harrumphed. Granted, at that age when he thought he had a chance with Allura she was sixteen and he was six, so in his toddler mind he totally had a chance. But then he got older and realized she was too old for him. To be fair it was more like her sitting him down and outlining every reason in a logical PowerPoint. But she pretended to marry him when he was younger so could you blame him for harboring a torch?

At the time he thought it had less to do with their age difference and more in the direction that he couldn’t protect her. But he quickly learned that she could protect herself _and_ him _and_ probably every person in this school.

He let his powers tickle his fingertips, the icy bite of his magic comforting him, reminding him of how far he came since he was young. He tucked away his magic into himself so only Keith’s heat radiated. Then thought better and let some of his own trickle out to even out the temperature.

He shifted his foot out, searching. Until it hit a jean-clad leg. “Hey, uh, I have to tell you something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, yeah, I know another cliffhanger and the last one isn't even resolved I'MSORRY!!
> 
> At least this one will be revealed in the next chapter? :D
> 
> Also, P.S. there has been foreshadowing in every single flipping chapter. If you guys find them or talk to me about what you think will happen it will make me a very happy camper :DD maybe I should do something for the person who finds them? Ohhohohohoho


	9. Practice and Explosions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief look into the history of Kieth and Lance. So basically a flashback.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it took so long guys! I just had so much work to do and this was a really precise chapter to get right with the emotions and plot and foreshadowing ^-^'
> 
> I don't really knoooww when the next chapter will be out but I'm hoping Thanksgiving break!

_“Give me a kiss before you go to school, Keith!” Strong arms wrapped around the boy’s middle, dragging him back to a warm embrace and a series of kisses on the side of his face and hair._

_He fought his way out of his mother’s grip. “Mom! Stop!” He straightened his many layers of clothes, still adjusting to his powers that his mom assures him he will grow into. “I’m thirteen, I’m too old for that.” He was still pouting when he popped in his temper gummy that his mom got from work, already feeling his internal temperature cooling._

_His mom with her inky dark and razor sharp hair, pretty hazel eyes that he sadly didn’t inherit. Though he was blessed with her sharp wit and sense of humor. She crossed her arms and cocked her hip. She didn’t have to say anything; just raised her brow and he knew._

_Grumbling, he leaned up as she leaned down and kissed her cheek._

_She chuckled and ruffled his hair. Crouching she took his face in her hands, smiling gently as she rubbed his cheeks still soft with baby fat. “You are so much like me when I was younger. My own little mini-me. I'm so proud of you, Keith.” She kissed his cheek and he let her. “I’ll see you after school.”_

_She released him and he slung his backpack over his shoulder. He said, “I’ll see you later!” Before rushing off for the bus._

_-_

_Lance aimed for the can on the fence, concentrating, focused and determined. He shook out his hands. “Okay, Lancey Lance, you got this. You’ve done this so many times you can do it in your sleep.” He breathed in deep, and pointed at the can thumb cocked in the air like a gun. He conjured up the icy cold in his body; focusing on the chill he moved it from his center and up his arm to build in his hand. Frosty air gathered around his hand in the morning air._

_He fired._

_It hit slightly off center but it froze instantly. He whooped and jumped in a circle in victory, fists pumping in the air. “Yeah! That’s how it’s done! Pew pew pew!” Hands in little guns he aimlessly shot small ice shards around him, thankfully not sharp, but hitting trees, the side of the house, and knocking over the can._

_“Whoa!”_

_Lance stopped his dancing and beamed at his older brother; he rushed over and tackled the older boy. “Cold! Lance, you’re freezing!” His brother wrestled out of his freezing grasp._

_“Did you see, Mateo? I froze the can!”_

_“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you also almost took out my eye with your little icicles.” He jerked his thumb toward the kitchen. “Ma and Papi want you to come in for breakfast, school’s almost starting.”_

_“Yeah, but did you_ see, _I froze the can! Finally!” Lance whooped his victory again, jumping up and down. He watched as his brother walked over to the fence where the can fell, bracing a hand on top and vaulting over it, picking up the can and vaulting back over._

_He flicked the side, a dull sound with blunt nails and cold aluminum. “Nice job, hermano. Keep this up and soon your powers’ll get cold enough to make this explode.”_

_Lance’s eyes grew large. “Really? Fuck yeah!”_

_His brother’s eyes grew large and he shushed him quickly, clapping a hand over his mouth, darting looks to the kitchen door. “Where did you learn that?” he hissed._

_Lance wrestled his mouth free. “Mateo, I go to school, I learn things. And you say it all the time!”_

_“Shhh shhhhhh shhhh, not so loud! If Mamá hears you she’ll have_ both _our heads!” He looked Lance dead in the eye. “Don’t swear. If Ma hears you swear…” He shuddered. “Just don’t.”_

_Lance looked at him oddly. “Okaaay, Mateo, sure. I won’t swear.”_

_His brother heaved a sigh of relief. “Good.”_

_Lance grabbed for the icy can in his brother’s grasp, who pulled it just out of reach. “Could I really make that explode?”_

_His brother nodded at him, before brushing his dark curls out of his blue eyes. “Yeah, if it gets cold enough for long enough the pressure in the can will pop and the liquid inside will expand, granted I don’t know if it’ll be liquid or frozen because your powers aren’t really liquid nitrogen but hey. You can also freeze it to the point it’s still liquid but if you pour it out it’ll turn into a slushy.” He held up the can with a charming smirk. “Which is what I think is what we have here.”_

_He wrapped an arm around Lance’s shoulders. “Come on, hermano, let’s have slushies for breakfast.”_

_-_

_Keith felt the gaze on his back. He frowned, avidly ignoring the feeling of someone watching him and keep staring at whatever the whiteboard is saying to him. He hunched his shoulders, scribbling nonsense into his notes before daring a peek behind him were the gaze he knows is behind him._

_Right there._

_Two rows behind him and one seat to the left. The kid with ice powers that never stopped teasing him. Brown hair, dark skin, and eyes like icicles, whose glares were just as sharp._

_Seeing that his attention was on him the boy behind him scowled, nose wrinkling like he smelled something bad. He pouted at him and formed an ice ball in his hand, it was pretty small but it was perfectly spherical and for all accounts a perfect snowball in the middle of May. He looked at him, squinting while miming throwing it at him._

_Keith rolled his eyes and conjured up a tad-too-large flame in his hand. It was supposed to be more like a match instead of engulfing his entire hand but it worked to get his message across._

_“Keith! No powers in the classroom!”_

_He felt his hand extinguish, spinning around to look at the teacher with incredulous eyes. “But—he—!” He turned around to see that Lance was mysteriously missing the snowball. He pouted and glared into his notebook, arms crossed._

_The teacher, satisfied, carried on with the lesson. They were reviewing sentence structure when he heard a familiar giggle. He turned his head to see the other boy chuckling and, when he saw him, stuck his tongue out at him. He returned the gesture with a sneer._

_He kept his arms crossed, staring at the board but not seeing it, intermittently heating and cooling his hands. That kid was so annoying. One day, he was gonna fight him with everything he’s got. See if those ice powers could handle a little heat._

_-_

_Lance snickered at the little sparks of flames flickering on Kogane’s fingertips. He didn’t even look like he noticed. The show-off. Making everything look so effortless._ Yeah sure, look at me I can set anything and everything on fire with just a snap of my fingers!!

_Lance flexed his fingers, already sore and stiff from making and absorbing the snowball. He sighed, breath visible from the use of his powers, a soft puff of air that quickly dissipated. He forced the ice to his fingertips, easier than before but still hard, frost collected and he flicked it off. Wet spots decorated his desk and paper._

_A nudge against his foot came from his friend next to him._

_“Lance,” Hunk whispered, “there are no powers in class.”_

_He flicked the last bit of slush at his friend. “It’s fine,” he whispered back._

_Hunk darted a look at the teacher, waiting for the best time when their back was turned to mouth at him, “You should stop messing with him.” And turned back to his own notes._

_Stop messing with Keith Kogane? Prodigal golden boy with his perfect grades, amazing powers, and too-good-for-you attitude?_

_He looked back at the mullet and under the table encased his hands in a thin layer of ice before absorbing it again._

_Not a chance._

_He’ll show him one day. He’ll get so powerful that Keith Kogane won’t help but sit up and take notice._

_-_

_“Keith Kogane,” a voice intoned._

_Keith looked up from his lunch, brows furrowed and mouth full. He swallowed his lunch. “Yeah?”_

_The man in front of him, standing tall and straight in his purple and black uniform, his sharp face and beady eyes locked onto Keith. He cocked his head in the direction of the door. “You need to come to the testing room.”_

_“But testing’s not until later?”_

_“Come…please,” he added like an afterthought._

_Keith slowly got up, leaving his tray behind. He wondered if he was a new researcher, though he didn’t seem like any of the other researchers he met. He hoped that his powers didn’t go haywire like it did last time. Whenever he goes in they give him some sort of pill to take away the effects of the temper gummies to see “his full potential” whatever that means. Oh, shit, he forgot to take another at lunch. Ah, maybe he won’t have to take the pill then._

_He followed the man down the hall to the testing room, nearly indestructible from the inside, at least from fire. Instead of targets, thermometers, and other instruments that usually greet him when he walks through the door it’s another researcher. Female this time with the same pointed features, he wondered if the man was her brother. Standing next to her was the principle, Mr. Hendrick._

_“Keith,” Mr. Hendrick said with a smile, walking over to him and putting an arm around his shoulders. “These nice people just need to ask you a few questions.” He led him to the table where a shiny-new laptop was sitting, sleek and purple with a familiar pointed decal decorating the top._

_The woman watched Keith with sharp eyes and her maybe brother followed and flanked him on the side. He felt uneasy, cornered, as these two watched him. His body temperature flared as a response, the temperature of the room rising._

_The principal just passed the computer to the people in the uniforms, oblivious to the tension in the room. “You’re not in trouble, don’t you worry.”_

_The woman slid the computer her way and started tapping away. “Yes, Keith, you are not in trouble but we just want to know some information. Did you had any idea that your mother was going to the supervillain prison today?”_

_“No, of course not,” Keith said, a question in his voice. Little sparks of flames flickered in his palms; he shoved them into his lap. “Why would she?”_

_The man and the woman looked at each other, a silent exchange, and back at him. “Your mother came to the prison today, disoriented and confused. And it appears as if that was just a ruse to either help your father escape or…possibly something else before she was subdued.”_

_It was like they slapped him. His powers flared under his skin. ‘Your powers don’t control you, your powers don’t control you,’ he chanted to himself before he gritted out,“You’re lying.”_

_“It was before she lost control of her powers.”_

_Keith couldn’t help it; he burst into flames, startling his principal away from him. Mr. Hendrick scrambled to the other side of the table where they remained unfazed. “My mother_ never _loses control.”_

_The woman looked him up and down, eyeing the angry flames and clenched fists. Her mouth pursed and he could see her grinding her teeth, she opened her mouth but man placed his hand on the elbow of the woman, stopping her. She breathed out harshly before turning the screen around to face him speaking pithily. “Well, she did today.”_

_Keith didn’t want to look at the screen. No, his mom would not try to break his father out of prison. She wouldn’t lose control either. They had to be lying to him. It makes so much more sense if they were just lying. They. Are. **Lying**. His mom was good and strong and always in control of herself. _

_She had never hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it, especially him or civilians. He knew she always wanted him to be safe. She wanted everyone to be safe. She taught him how to control his powers and when she couldn’t help anymore she looked for ways that could help him. She taught him how to make eggs in a microwave. She taught him how to tie his shoes. She taught him the different types of knives and helped him practice with a dull plastic knife._

_He had to prove to them that he was right. It had to be a mistake; it would not be his mom._

_He looked at the screen._

_A woman with black pants and a dark red blouse stumbled into the station. She was holding her head with one arm and the other was clutched to her stomach. He couldn’t hear her but it looked like she said, “help” and “please,” before falling to the middle of the floor, clawing at the linoleum with her nails._

_That feeling of incredulousness. The shock, the breathlessness, the one moment of just not being able to process what happened. Something you know to be a fundamental truth; the sky is blue, the grass is green, humans breathe air. It was like he was told everyone was actually talking dinosaurs that lived in a giant underwater cavern with purple grass and a neon green sky._

_He was barely aware of his flames encompassing him, slowly traveling up his torso to halo around his head, spitting out embers._

_A few people rushed towards her to help, all shouting at once, mouths moving soundlessly. The woman **screamed** as blades erupted from her fingers, piercing the floor through with ease. Cracks fissured out, making the ones who were about to help turn and run. It was at that time the red emergency lights went flooded the place._

_Keith’s tears hissed when they touched the flames on his skin._

_His mom tore at the ground as more blades erupted from her body, tearing her clothes as easily as they sliced through the ground. She screamed again as the blades from her body were flung outward. People dodged and hid behind objects but some were too slow. They glinted dangerously from where they were embedded, still shivering from their posts with the force_

_“What’s happening?” Keith shouted at them, standing up. His hands pounded on the table leaving scorch marks and dented metal behind. “That’s not my mom! Those aren’t her powers!” He blinked back the heat in his eyes. A loud and raucous voice inside of him chanted ‘it’s not her, it’s not her, it’s not her’._

_It wasn’t her because she was at work. It wasn’t her because she said she would see him when he got out of school. It wasn’t her because last time something bad happened to their little family she promised that she would protect him. That she would always be there for him._

_It wasn’t her. It **couldn’t** be._

_She said she would see him after school._

_She stopped screaming, panting hard she stared at the ground in front of her. Even from the distance, he could see that her eyes were foggy, they flicked up when a massive fireball busted through the door. It landed off to the side of his mom, who was completely unfazed. A blade was hurled through the air towards the challenger, which they melted in mid-air with bright blue flames. Someone entered the room._

_The man was familiar. The faded memories of a happy family drifted in the back of his mind. A warm smile and a clean-shaven face replaced with a patchy beard and a pursed mouth, shorn hair now shaggy, bangs hanging in his eyes. He pushed his hair off his forehead, letting Keith see the blue, almost purple irises, laser-focused and_ deadly _. Keith’s breath caught in his throat. His mom’s voice an echo in the back of his mind._ “People might see you and think of him, Keith, but you’re _my_ son.”

_His mom used to be a superhero. She stopped when she found out her husband was taking side jobs to get rid of “evidence” (he grew to understand what she really meant) for the local and worldwide villains. No matter how hard his father tried to convince her it was for their family she still turned him in. The good of the public over the wants of the few. Keith wanted to be just like her. He was always told he’s exactly like her._

_This woman in front of him wasn’t his mom. She would never do this to him. Get herself thrown in jail, try to get his father out of jail, or put herself and others in mortal danger. But…it was her. It was her hurting others. She was in the prison ready to attack. It was her completely forgetting what this would do to him. Keith felt heat, separate from his power crawl up his stomach, making the acid feel like it was boiling. He swallowed against it but it didn’t help._

_His hands shook at his sides as his powers erratically flared around him, expanding and shrinking intermediately, undecided whether or not to take everything around them down with them. His gut reaction was to let everything loose, he would feel better if he just let it all go. His mind, on the other hand, reminded him that he needed to remain in control. He needed to be in control. Kids would get hurt; at the very least he would prove that **he** could control himself._

_The woman in front of him reached for the laptop._

_A whip of fire cracked through the air on the screen, missing…his mother by a couple of feet but setting the other side of the room on fire. He could clearly see his father shouting at her, nickname passing easily from his lips._

_“Ji-ji! Stop!”_

_His mother clutched at her head with her razor-sharp fingers, slicing a few hairs off in the process. Standing up, mouth moving clearly, “Payton get out of here!”_

_The laptop snapped shut._

_The woman stared down at him. “Do you believe us now?”_

_Keith could feel the tears drip from his eyes and hear the sizzle as they evaporated. “Did you know my mom?” he asked, still some rebellion in him. Whoever that was, she might have been his mother but she was not his mom. He felt the heat build until it felt like he was filled with it. It thrashed under his skin, wanting to get out to melt that laptop. Destroy the evidence. Help his mom. Reach as high and as far as it possibly could to escape this room. To burn it’s way out._

_The woman’s lips tightened. “Yes. I did. We worked together on several cases when she was still a superhero.”_

_“Then you know you are **wrong!** That is **not** my mom!” _

_The man stepped forward, hand out but not close to the flames licking his body. “Keith, I’m sorry to say, the evidence is there. She came into the prison and whether she was there to help your father escape or otherwise she still injured several people and…killed your father in the fight. She was arrested.”_

_“No! **No!** You’re wrong! She wouldn’t **do** that to me!” He kicked the chair in frustration, having it fall over behind him. “It’s gotta be someone else!”_

_The principal came over hands out in what was supposed to be a calming gesture. “Keith, Keith, it’s okay. You don’t have to be like them.”_

_Something inside of Keith recoiled at those words._

_He pushed the principle away from him, hands aflame, uncaring if he left marks over his stupid suit. He wanted to lunge for the laptop and melt it down to the motherboard but that would only prove… something. That he was dangerous or that he would hurt someone or **something**. He sprinted out of the room, flames trailing behind him._

_-_

_Lance twirled the bathroom pass in his fingers, idly whistling down the hallway. He rubbed he laminated paper between his fingers. Keith wasn’t in class, and he_ knew _that he was at school; he was in their first-period class. Sure he has that suuuper special program for kids that were really powerful, or just show-offs. He’s probably in there showing off how powerful he was and burning crap._

_Is crap a bad word? He’ll ask Mateo._

_Lance doesn’t know anyone else who’s in the program either. But of course no one is as powerful as_ Keith Kogane. _Certainly not him. He looked at the frost that coated his hand._

_Lance couldn’t help but pout, forcing more ice and cold to the palm of his hand, forming it into a perfect spherical snowball. He tried to form it into a point but it just looked like a teardrop. He threw it into the nearest water fountain, too lazy to absorb it back. It landed with a wet plop._

_His Mamá told him he was still growing. That if he kept working his powers would become powerful like his friends. He finally was able to make the snowball and absorb it back just this year. He could cool a warm drink with just a touch, but how impressive was that? Not really._

_Hunk could already lift three TVs and a refrigerator without breaking a sweat. Plaxum could breathe underwater for, like, ever. Even Shay, whose powers drained her, in her crystal form could kick his butt all the way to the other side of the world._

_And he could make slushies._

_Not even mentioning Keith who could probably set this entire city on fire. He didn’t even have to try to get his powers working for him. He could just be glaring at him and Lance could see the flames lick at his fingertips. It was just so easy for him and_ of course _he would get special treatment. Because he_ was _special._

_Lance just had to keep working until he was special too._

_He was trying to form his little ice ball in different shapes, maybe a heart for his older sister, when he smelled something. Something burning._

_If there was anything he was expecting it was not Keith Kogane burning a scorch mark into the carpet. He was scrunched up, arms around his knees, sitting against the concrete wall, flames everywhere. On his arms, in his hair, an ever-expanding black mark extending from him, the smell of burnt plastic in the air._

_Lance hurriedly backed up and hid behind the corner before his classmate could see him._

_What in the world?_

_Why was Keith on fire? Was he upset? He was the golden boy of the class, gifted with an awesome power and the ability to use it. Unlike Lance’s, his power always_ worked _for him. Keith had his superpower all figured out, it was really strong and he always showed off in class so he had good control, he could probably do a ton of stuff, he had everything._

_But maybe he didn’t have that much control? At least from what Lance originally thought. Why else would he be on fire? He must have gotten upset about something and lost control of it._

_A proud little bubble grew inside of Lance’s chest._

_Even when he was upset nothing happened to anyone. It could be because he had such weak powers, but he still had better control!_

_He had better control than Keith Kogane!_

_He peeked around the corner. Keith was still there, glaring at the blackened floor in front of him. He wasn’t even trying to calm down or put out his flames. If anything they got hotter, something Lance could feel from around the concrete corner._

_He looked around, a little seed of nervousness taking growth. Where were the teachers? It was just him and Keith in the hallway. He allowed his powers to manifest in layers of frost on his skin, which quickly melted and evaporated in the heat._

_Lance pouted. Maybe he should talk to Keith. He might be on fire and upset but he wouldn’t hurt him. Besides, he has ice powers and he froze a can that morning, he’d be fine._

_He started to walk up to him, slowing slightly, that little seed of nervousness growing again but he shoved it down. He sauntered up to him and stood in front of him, hands on his hips. He waited until Keith looked up at him before asking, “What’s wrong with_ you _?” Lance winced at the delivery but it would be weird if he actually sounded like he cared, right? He doesn’t, not about_ specifically _Keith, just… why he’s on fire._

_Keith scowled, glaring at him from puffy eyes. “Nothing,” he spat._

_“Then why are you on fire in the middle of the hallway?” Lance scuffed his shoe against the rim of the black circle, soot coming off. His powers kept him cool but slightly damp from the constant melting. Though, the close proximity from the heat was helping him stay drier if not hotter. Lance couldn’t tell if that was a good or bad thing._

_Keith got up and walked into Lance’s space, flames only centimeters away from his shirt. “None of your business.” He stomped down the hall._

_Lance frowned. He was just asking, obviously, he lost control or something and can’t put the flames out. Maybe he doesn’t even know how. He could totally help him with that. A smug smirk crept across his face at the thought of showing the oh-so-perfect Keith Kogane what to do. He followed._

_Hands in his pockets and frost on his skin he followed Keith down the hallway, concrete walls turning to lockers. Stray bits of paper blackened from the heat or caught fire from the flames. Lance let his ice powers float to the surface, chips of ice forming before melting and then quickly replaced._

_“Could it be that you lost control of your powers? I could totally show you how to. It’s pretty easy, at least for me. I’ve always had really good control but I’d be willing to pass on my knowledge.” Lance rambled with a smug grin._

_“I_ said _it’s none of your business!” Keith barked, the flames melting the ice frosting Lance’s body. For a brief moment, he felt the heat against his skin, making it feel tight and prickly. It felt like standing in front of a roaring fire during winter._

 _Lance grimaced at the show of intimidation but smoothed his reaction with a sigh. “Dude, just admit you lost control. You don’t need to be perfect all the_ time. _”_

_“I **didn’t** lose control!” Keith spat, finally turning around to glare at the boy following him_

_Lance flung his hand out. “Tell that to the melting lockers right now!”_

_“I didn’t ask for your opinion! Who the fuck do you think you are?!”_

_Lance’s mouth gaped. He opened and closed it aimlessly while he tried to think of a response. Barely aware of the rising temperature or how his body unconsciously produced more ice to counteract it. And he was going to help this guy! He’s nothing but a jerk! A jerk that swears!_

_“I was the guy that was going to help you! Guess not! Too bad, you might’ve learned a thing or two!”_

_“I don’t need to learn anything from you! I want you to leave. Me. Alone!” Keith stepped forward, arms extended to push the boy away from him. It looked as if he was aiming for the shoulders but before he could get close flames shot out of his palms in a fwoosh._

_Lance scrambled back, shirt wet from the layers of ice melted. His heart thudded in his chest as he patted himself down for any sign of injury. His shoulders were hot and his shirt had a few burn holes in it, but otherwise fine except for the pink tint to his normally naturally tanned skin._

_Lance looked back at Keith. He could not **believe** that he would use his powers on him just because he wanted him to leave. Sure he might not be his favorite person but that was **so** uncalled for. _

_Keith looked at him with wide eyes, hands out but very careful to not get too close. “I-I’m so sorry, it was an accident—“_

_“An **accident**?!” Lance could feel his hands shake a bit and he fisted them to make it stop. “You expect me to believe you attacked me on **accident?** ” Lance had never seen Keith’s power do anything he didn’t want to do. Maybe it was a little overpowered but he still did it. He’s still a jerk. “Can you stop showing off or being a jerk for one **second**?”_

_Keith’s flames flickered erratically and Lance gulped, shoving those anxious feelings down. He’s not going to let Keith intimidate him. The boy currently on fire backed up, moving to the side of the hallway back to a wooden door, standing soldier straight while his power danced fitfully around him._

_“I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean—“_

_Lance cut him off with a glare. He just didn’t want him telling a teacher. They’re probably going to find out anyway, the entire hallway was warped. “You didn’t mean? To what? Use your powers on me?”_

_“No!” Keith shouted, breaking his stance. “I didn’t!”_

_“It sure seemed like it, you jerk!”_

_His face crumpled. “I just lost control.”_

_At that his powers went wild, not being contained by the body hosting it but running along the carpet, up the walls toward the ceiling, devouring anything in its hungry path. Lance could feel a stone plummet in his stomach at how quickly the fire took over. Could feel how his heart raced against his breastbone and hear it in his ears. Actual fear for once gripping him._

_“Keith stop! This isn’t funny!”_

_Keith looked around wildly, eyes frantic and wide with panic. “I can’t stop! It’s—it’s too much, I can’t control anything!”_

_Oh, god, it never crossed his mind that Keith could actually have problems with his powers. Now the problem is going to burn them to a crisp. He needed to get out of there. He needed to get Keith to calm down. He needed to stop the fire. He needed to get them both out._

_He forced as much ice to the surface as possible, not that much from the extended use that he was using it but he got a good couple of inches of ice forming despite the heat. He tried to remember what his brother said about some science stuff from before and absolute zero but he didn’t have time for that._

_He jogged over to Keith, wincing at the oppressive heat; it far surpassed a campfire. Keith flinched back, further into the door. He stopped uncertainly in front of him._

_“Keith you need to calm down!”_

_The fire flared around him as he looked at Lance helplessly._

_Lance reached out, ice encasing his arms, stomach twisting. “Keith you gotta breathe, in and out.” It twisted further when he noticed the hazard sign behind him, flames licking up the doorway and warping the sign. They were in front of a janitor’s closet with highly explosive materials._

_Lance lunged for Keith’s hand; steam an audible sizzle when they connected. The twisting in his stomach released, a surge of cold pushing from his core, as the janitor’s closet exploded in a burst of light and sound._


End file.
